


Don't Be

by secooper87



Series: Adventures of a Line Hopper [1]
Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Doctor Who
Genre: Action/Adventure, Adventure, Canon Compliant, Crossover, Tenth Doctor Era, Timelines, Vampires, Whump
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-01-04
Updated: 2012-01-15
Packaged: 2017-10-28 21:30:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 28
Words: 61,465
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/312367
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/secooper87/pseuds/secooper87
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The moment Buffy saw the Doctor, she knew she had to kill him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Buffy meets the Doctor, who yells at her for staking vampires.

Perhaps it was because he was pleasantly talking to a vampire. Perhaps it was because that extra Slayer sense was going crazy inside her head. Or perhaps it was just because she knew that normal people from the 90's didn't wear brown pinstripe suits with red trainers. But one thing was clear: the moment she saw him, Buffy knew she had to kill him.

He was in the cemetery, at night — always a bad sign, in Buffy's book — in a dark, ill-lit mausoleum, chatting, rather amiably, with a vampire. Buffy was on patrol, as usual. The night was cold and biting, the leaves slick beneath her feet. Buffy gripped her stake a little more tightly, prowling through the fallen leaves and moist grass without a sound, as she snuck ever closer to them. She could see their faces illuminated by candlelight, their shadows dancing on the nearby walls.

"Well, yeah, I suppose you could do that," said the strangely-dressed man. British accent — bit more lively than Giles. What was up with the Brits and vampire-demons?

"Course, bit thick, isn't it?" continued the man. "Actively calling attention to yourself by butchering a bunch of humans — not really a smart move, in my book. They tend to get a bit upset about that."

"Not my problem," said the vampire.

The Slayer senses were really strong, now. Buffy had never felt them this strong before. It wasn't a tingle or an itch the way it usually was. No, this was like a light in her head had just gone, ding! And every step she took towards the pair, the feeling got stronger and stronger. Right, Buffy knew the drill. First, get rid of the vampire — might as well, while she was at it. Then came the witty one-liner. Then the slaying.

"Well, see, it sort of is, if you think about it," said the man. "Because those humans, when you get them angry, they can be pretty hard to stop. You ever been to a Wal-Mart on Black Friday? Blimey, worse than Salem, I'll tell you that."

The vampire scoffed.

Buffy was right outside the door. She was pretty sure neither the demon nor the vampire had heard her. She was about to go in for the kill, when suddenly, she paused, and looked around. That was weird. She could have sworn she'd seen something, out of the corner of her eye, but there was nothing. She concentrated, but beyond the chattering of the Britishy guy and the vampire, there was only the faint whistle of wind and… was that a soft shuffling sound? Or was that just the wind in the leaves?

Not important. Back to the vamp and the demon.

"Oh, come on," the strangely-dressed man was saying to the vampire, looking a bit more exasperated with every word. "I know you might not have full control of your anterior prefrontal cortex, but surely you must have something of a brain. Use it!"

"And why should I listen to a word you say, Time Lord?" snarled the vampire. "I know what your people will do to this planet if you report back to them. Why shouldn't I just suck you dry right now?"

The man's amiability washed away, suddenly, and there was a powerful anger radiating from him. "You know what I am," said the man. "Question is, do you know who I am?"

The vampire's eyes went wide, his hands trembling. "The Oncoming Storm…" he muttered.

"Oh, yes," said the man. "And let me tell you this. Every horror story you've heard, every nightmare you've had, every rumor you've been told about me… they're all true. Which means the question you have to ask yourself is this: is it worth it? Is it really worth it?"

The vampire was now truly terrified. Buffy was trying to jot down mental notes for when she told Giles about this the next day. She wasn't sure what kind of demon the man was (a Time What?) but with lines like that, he'd probably try to end the world by at least Thursday. Which was annoying, because Buffy had a test on Thursday, and she didn't really need the distraction.

Better hurry this up.

Buffy took careful aim, then hurled the stake she was carrying at the vampire so that it would go right through his heart. The man looked up, suddenly, as if he'd heard her (but she'd been completely silent, she knew that) and then shouted, "No!" He threw the vampire out of the way of the stake, the sharpened piece of wood sailing through the tips of the man's spiky brown hair as he and the vampire toppled to the ground.

The vampire, noticing the near miss with the stake, scrambled to his feet, and began running for the door. What a moron of a vampire. As the vamp ran, he accidentally pushed over the tall candlestick holder, extinguishing the candle in a second. It was now pitch black in the mausoleum. Well, that worked to Buffy's advantage, anyways. She knew perfectly well how to fight in the dark. As the vamp ran through the door, Buffy staked him easily. He crumbled, then turned into dust and vanished. Buffy posed in the door.

"Well, he might not think it's worth it," said Buffy. "But I'm game if you are."

The man turned and gave her an icy glare. It was clear that he could only see her contour in the doorframe, but his eyes still managed to seek hers out through the darkness.

"You didn't have to do that," said the man. "He was a living being!"

"No pulse, no breath, no heartbeat, came out of a grave," said Buffy, stepping into the mausoleum. "Pretty sure that counts as dead in my book." Buffy grabbed another stake from her pocket, being careful to tread softly and keep to the shadows. "I wouldn't get too worked up about it. You're the one I'm going to kill, demon-boy."

The man got to his feet. He was standing right in front of the door, the only illuminated section of the mausoleum. It was clear that he couldn't quite see her, that he was trying to follow her movements by sound alone. Considering the echo in the mausoleum, it was a noble but inevitably fruitless idea. Only the seriously well trained, like Buffy, could manage something like that.

"How many?" the man demanded. "How many victims have you slaughtered here?"

"Anything that comes through here without a soul," said Buffy, circling the man so that he wouldn't be able to tell where she was.

"Including me," said the man, flatly.

"Not human, no soul, pretty much business as usual," said Buffy.

The man scanned the area with his eyes, hoping to find her in the darkness. "And what gives you the right to decide who lives and who dies?" demanded the man. "Where does it stop? Those without souls? Because there are plenty of humans who are evil, despicable, and soulless. You planning to murder them in cold blood as well?"

Buffy kept circling, keeping to the shadows. Funny thing was, she couldn't work out where this demon's heart was. So she wasn't sure how to stake him. She put the stake away, and reached for the sword she kept at her waist instead.

"I don't kill humans," said Buffy. "That's your job."

There was a sudden sad look in the man's eyes, something that made Buffy hesitate. It was almost like… remorse? Which would mean that he had a soul. But she'd heard what he'd said to the vampire. If that wasn't demony, Buffy didn't know what was. In an instant, the sadness was gone, and the coldness was back in his eyes. Buffy wondered if she'd been imagining things. She was getting way too worked up about Angel. She had to keep reminding herself that other demons weren't like that.

"Who are you?" asked the man.

"I'm the Slayer," said Buffy. "You know? In every generation there is a chosen one, a girl who will stand alone against the vampires, demons, forces of darkness, yada yada yada. Look, I know this is your big moment and everything, but could we cut out the talking and just skip right to the killing? I've got tests to study for." And, without waiting for an answer, Buffy unsheathed her sword and pounced on him.

The man wasn't even facing her, kept scanning the surrounding area trying to follow her voice, but he still managed to dart out of the way just in time. Buffy got to her feet in seconds, lunging at the man, but he was nearly as fast as she was, ducking down so abruptly that Buffy toppled across his back and landed on the floor a little ways away. She hopped back to her feet. Okay. Not a pushover, then. Focus, Buffy. You can do this.

"Slayer?" said the man. "You wear that title with honor, then?"

"I get by," said Buffy. She began moving faster, relying on her training, her quick reflexes, and the advantage of the darkness to try to fake him out. She lashed out at him again, but at the last second, he picked up the candlestick holder and blocked her move. Buffy retreated. No, that was impossible. How could he block her if he couldn't even see her? But he'd blocked her perfectly, as if he'd known. As if he could see.

Which he couldn't. Buffy knew he couldn't. The man was still scanning the room, hoping to catch a glimpse of her.

Buffy lunged out again, and again, a perfect block. Just in time, too. He wasn't even looking her direction this time, instead peering somewhere off to the right, where the sound of her footsteps was echoing. He was… listening, Buffy realized. Listening for her footsteps. He was using the rhythm of her footwork to predict her actions.

Okay, he was definitely smart for a demon, she'd give him that.

"There a lot of people in Sunnydale who wander around in the dark carrying swords and attacking innocent civilians, or is it just you?" asked the man, with that same sort of lightness that only the really twisted villains used when they were threatening to destroy the Earth (not that he was actually threatening to destroy the Earth at this moment, but whatever. Slay now, think later).

Buffy charged at the man, hoping the sound of his talking would muddle out the echo of her footsteps. The man blocked Buffy's next three advances, then skirted out of the way of a swipe.

"See, I wouldn't ask, but I have this friend," said the man, as he continued to avoid her attacks expertly. "Well, I say friend. Actually, last time she saw me, she said she wished she'd never met me. But, thing is, I'm a bit worried about her. There's this bomb, a temporal explosive device, and if it were to detonate, the effects on the timeline would be…"

This time, Buffy did the footwork for a left lunge, but gave a right lunge instead, hoping it would catch him off guard. It did. She managed to get in a good slash across his right cheek. The man gave a small yelp, and stumbled back, dropping the candlestick holder. Buffy took the opportunity to strike out, hoping to sever his head from his shoulders, but he moved at the last moment, causing only a gash on his forehead.

"Oi!" said the man. "Watch where you're pointing that thing!"

"Less talking, more dying," said Buffy. She hurtled towards him, trying the same trick again, but before she could get to him, she found he was beside her, twisting the sword out of her hand.

Without even a second glance at the sword, he tossed it over his shoulder, and smiled at her. Buffy could hear it thud into the dirt outside the mausoleum.

"Now, I think we got off on the wrong foot," said the man. "I'm the—"

Buffy leapt forward, hitting the side of his face with her chunky black boot. He went down under the impact, and Buffy ran off to retrieve the sword. By the time that Buffy had snatched up the sword and turned around, the guy was already on his feet and talking.

"Bit rude, that," he said, walking towards the door of the mausoleum. "Even by my standards." Buffy could see him now, in the doorway. "Look, if you're going to insist on killing me, at least let me find… my… friend…"

The man trailed off, as his eyes landed on Buffy. He stopped, a few steps outside the mausoleum door, just staring at her. Buffy sighed. This was so typical. He was probably going to say something about how he expected someone taller or more impressive looking to be the Slayer. Men — even evil demon men — were always weird about stuff like that.

"If your friend's been living here, she's probably already dead," said Buffy. "I don't like leaving demons and vampires unstaked."

He still said nothing. Wow, this guy couldn't shut up a few seconds ago, and now he was just gaping like a fish. Well, whatever. She had the sword again, she figured it was time to get this over with.

Buffy wielded the sword and leapt at him, and was actually surprised when he didn't dart out of the way. She held him against the outer wall of the mausoleum, pinning him in place, so he couldn't move if he wanted to. Except he wasn't trying to move. He was just looking at her as if he couldn't believe his eyes. What was he staring at her like that for? She held the sword's edge against his throat, waiting for him to put in some last plea or challenge, but he just kept staring, silently.

It was unnerving.

"What, no final words?" she asked.

The man blinked. "Elizabeth?"


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Doctor discovers that he knows Buffy, but Buffy doesn't know him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For everyone who likes Buffy as a character, don't worry. Buffy isn't evil. She isn't going to wind up being the most terrible thing in the universe. The Doctor's reaction is completely warranted, but it's misdirected at the moment. And if you like Buffy, you should definitely keep reading, because there's going to be a lot of scenes ahead that will make up for this little bit at the end. Like the Doctor yelling at certain people for screwing up Buffy's life.

Buffy hesitated.

That was her mistake.

The man immediately extricated himself from her hold, and faced her. "Elizabeth Anne Summers?"

"How do you know my name?" asked Buffy.

"Elizabeth, it's me," the man said, earnestly. When he got no response, he added, "the Doctor?"

"The Doctor?" Buffy laughed. "You know, as evil demon names go, that's got to be one of the worst. That's not even scary." She swung the sword at him again.

"Elizabeth, wait, wait, stop!" he said. "It's me! It's really me! Remember?"

"Never seen you before in my life," said Buffy. "And stop calling me Elizabeth. My name is Buffy."

The man — the Doctor? — blinked, then smiled. "Oh, right, the face!" he said. "Sorry, biological quirk of my species. You probably remember me a bit older, shoulder-length wavy hair with a green frock coat, rather dashing good looks with a Byronic twist?" He faltered as he noticed the blank expression on Buffy's face. His smile slowly faded. "Or… not…"

Buffy decided it wasn't her fault if this guy was too dense to take a hint, and swiped at him again.

"Look, mister, I don't know you," said Buffy. "I'm not going to suddenly get a change of heart now that you know my name. It's not like it's that close a secret."

She managed to slice right through the fabric of his suit jacket this time, but still, no killing blow.

"Elizabeth Anne Summers," said the man, quickly, continuing to dodge Buffy's advances. "Born January 11, 1981. You have a cousin, Celia, deceased, and in sixth grade, you fancied a bloke named Billy Fordham."

Buffy froze.

"How do you know that?" she demanded. She could feel her hands trembling, but she tried to keep it together.

"Elizabeth, it's me," said the Doctor. "It's really me. I know I look and act a bit different, but it's still me inside. I still remember you." He advanced towards her. "The day we met, you saved me from a horde of Daleks. Remember? I burned down your gym, and you got blamed for it." He gave a wince. "Probably should have apologized for that one, actually. Sort of have a bad habit of meeting people when I blow up major buildings." He grinned at her, and winked.

Buffy raised the sword again, her cool back in place. "Nice try, but you might want to double check the facts before you try to inveigle your way into my inner circle," said Buffy.

"Sorry?"

"It was vampires in that gym, all right?" said Buffy. "Not whatever you're going on about. And I set that fire myself. I'm good with fires. I don't need help."

"Vampires?" said the man. He skirted out of the way of her sword. "Pretty sure it wasn't vampires. Big, metallic, pepper-pot shaped things, like to shout 'exterminate' a lot? No, definitely not vampires."

"What the hell are you talking about?" said Buffy.

"Daleks?" prompted the Doctor. "In the gym? At the dance? You must remember that. The Daleks were using an anti-neutrino cannon to fire…." He trailed off, a sudden blank look washing across his face. He stared past Buffy, into the distance, as if he were seeing something else entirely, playing out before his eyes. "Daleks," he breathed. "I was looking for Daleks. That's why I was there." He looked back at Buffy. "But there aren't any Daleks. There were never any Daleks. They were unwritten from history at the end of the War. A whole new timeline, a whole new chain of causality. A timeline where there were no Daleks at your school. A timeline where I never arrived, and you never saved my life. A timeline where…" He trailed off, his jaw trembling a little as he realized the implications. "..you got your wish," he whispered. He looked at her, now, with utter sadness in his eyes. "You never met me."

"Yeah, that's what I said," said Buffy. She was gripping her sword a little tighter.

"And this is the result," said the man. He gave Buffy a sad, sad look. "Oh, I'm sorry," he said. "I'm so, so sorry, Elizabeth."

"It's not Elizabeth, it's Buffy," snapped Buffy. "Why do you keep calling me Elizabeth?"

"Because you told me to," said the Doctor. "We travelled together for years. We were friends."

"You wish," scoffed Buffy. "Look, why don't you just call me Slayer? That's what most demons call me."

"Never," said the Doctor. "I refuse to call you something that you're not. You're not a butcher, you're not a slayer, you're not a murderer. You're better than that."

"You don't even know me," protested Buffy.

"Your favorite color is red, your favorite food is pasta, and you enjoy ice skating as long as it's on a planet that's less than 200 million kilometers from the nearest sun," said the Doctor. "Or, if it has two suns, actually. Or three moons."

"So you're a stalker," said Buffy.

The Doctor gaped at her. "I leave you alone for fifty years, and suddenly, that makes me a stalker? I've gone through three faces since the last time I saw you."

"You know, if I wasn't going to kill you, I'd say there was a nice white padded cell with your name on it," said Buffy.

"But you're still planning to kill me," said the Doctor. "Because I'm not human."

"Pretty much."

"And that makes you the good guy, does it?"

"I'm only a good guy if you're on the right side," said Buffy. "Humans are. You're not. Deal with it."

She ran at him again with the sword, but he twisted the sword back out of her arm, and dropped it to the ground. He held her by the wrists, and Buffy struggled against him, trying to get out of his hold. She kicked out at him, but he dodged her expertly. His skin was cool. She could feel two pulses in the veins beneath his wrist. Two hearts. Well, that explained why she couldn't work out where to stake him.

And he was managing to hold her in place by just her wrists. Which shouldn't have been possible.

"Stop, stop, stop!" said the Doctor. "Elizabeth, why are you doing this? Killing vampires, murdering nonhumans, tramping through graveyards? This isn't you. I know it isn't you. What happened to your friends, your family? What happened to all that passion for life that I remember?"

"You stay away from my friends and family," warned Buffy.

"You're better than this," said the Doctor. "If you still knew me, if you still remembered me, you'd never do anything like this."

"Yeah? Well maybe I'm better for not meeting you," said Buffy. "You ever thought of that? Everyone keeps telling me what I should do with my life. Maybe I'm better with one less person trying to control me."

The guy faltered at this. He released Buffy's wrists and stepped back, saying nothing. There was a suddenly guilty look on his face, one that not even the shadows of night could hide. Buffy tried to calm herself down, tried to re-focus her mind on her evening goals. Goal number one: kill this guy. Goal number two: study. Goal number three: sneak off to see Angel. Got it.

Thing was, Buffy wasn't sure if Goal Number One was really such a good idea anymore. For an evil villain demon guy, this 'Doctor' person was really bad at being an evil villain demon guy. He'd been in a perfect position to kill her a few times, now, and instead of attacking her, he'd just… talked to her. A lot. And not apocalypsey talk or death threats or anything. It was just… stuff about her. Lots of stuff about her. And the guilt on his face — that was about her, too. Who the hell was this guy?

Someone with two hearts and cool skin. Who changes his face. And frightens vampires.

The guy took a long, shaky breath, and combed a hand through his hair. "Look, you don't know me and you don't trust me. I understand that. But I know you. You would never do this. Not voluntarily."

"I got chosen," said Buffy. "I know what that means. I'm just doing my job."

"Killing people," clarified the Doctor.

"They're not people," said Buffy. "They don't have souls."

"And what about you?" asked the Doctor. "Don't you have a soul? Doesn't it hurt you, just a little bit more every time you do it?"

Buffy said nothing. She was thinking of Angel, about how she'd sent him to hell, reduced him to little more than an animal. That had hurt. It had hurt more than anything.

"You don't have to do this, Elizabeth," said the Doctor. "You don't have to kill. There's always a better way."

"I don't have a choice," said Buffy. "I'm the Slayer. I have to slay stuff."

"You always have a choice," insisted the Doctor. "If you don't want to do this, if you don't want to be the Slayer, you can always just stop."

Buffy glared at him. "What, you think I haven't tried that?" She advanced on the guy, angrily. "You're right. I don't want to be the Slayer. I don't want to spend my nights killing vampires and demons. I don't want to grow up alone, living a lie, and die before the age of 20. I don't want to lose everyone and everything I've ever loved. But that's what has to happen! That's who I am. That's my destiny."

Something cold and terrible burned in the Doctor's eyes, and Buffy could see a hint of the same man who had scared the vampire earlier that night. "No," said the Doctor, his breath getting short and angry as he spoke. "It isn't. That's not who you are, and that's not what's going to happen to you. I've lost too many people, recently, too many friends. I'm not losing you as well."

"We're not friends," said Buffy.

"Listen, Elizabeth—"

"Buffy."

"—I left you here to live your own life," the Doctor continued. "And I'm sorry about the way we… left things. I really am. But I never meant for this to happen to you. I wanted you to live the life that you deserved. A normal, human life with normal human concerns. Whoever's forced you to do this, whatever they've said, they're wrong. No one should just… use you and then throw you away when they're done with you. You're a human being, and you deserve to be treated like a human being."

Buffy had to admit this was a bit of a new one on her. A demon who actually cared about her life? Her soul? A demon who used his evil-villain-speak to rant about the injustice of her situation instead of world domination? Buffy gave herself a mental slap. This was manipulation on a massive scale. Obviously, this demon didn't care about her. He was trying to sweet talk her, use her for something. Well, it wasn't going to work. Not on her. Not on Buffy.

"Yeah, I'm sure you'd like that," said Buffy. "Get the Slayer out of the way, and you and your pals can just walk right in and take this world for yourselves. I'm not stupid." She tapped her head. "I got Slayer senses, you know. To tell me when there's danger around. Vampires. Demons. That sort of thing. And my Slayer senses say you're bad news."

The Doctor blinked. "Sorry, come again?"

"It's like you're off my Slayer senses all together," said Buffy. "No, actually, it's like, you're so evil, my Slayer senses are giving you their own special category. Some little buzzer in my head to make sure I know you're around."

Buffy had imagined a lot of reactions to this revelation. The guy pulling off his human disguise and attacking her (that reaction was long since overdue). The guy bursting out laughing, pretending to be innocent and bluff his way out of it. Maybe even a full on vampire transformation. But this guy did none of those things.

He stared at her, a look of complete horror on his face.

"No," he breathed. He pulled a metal tube thing out of his pocket, which lit up blue at one end. It was, perhaps, a credit to just how ruffled Buffy had become by this guy that she didn't react to the unknown device's appearance until it had already been stowed away. The horror in the man's eyes grew. "You didn't… you couldn't…"

Buffy gave him a look. "I didn't what?" she asked, hands on hips.

His eyes suddenly went dark, and his entire posture went rigid. His fists clenched by his sides, and Buffy could feel the anger radiating off of him, as if it were something tangible, seeping through the air. "You killed her," said the Doctor, in a low, dangerous voice. He stepped forward, and stopped. "You killed her!" he shouted. "She was just a child, a baby, and you butchered her!" He was breathing heavily, the air misting with every exhale. Buffy actually flinched backwards at his sudden anger.

"Buffy Summers," he said, in the softest, angriest, coldest tone of voice that Buffy had ever heard. "I don't think there's any good left in you."

And with that, the Doctor turned, and walked away.

It was only when he'd disappeared into the shadows that Buffy realized he'd finally stopped calling her Elizabeth.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Buffy tells Giles and the Scoobies about the Doctor.

Everyone could tell that Buffy was in a terrible mood from the moment she arrived in the library the next day. Buffy didn't really care. She slammed her books down on the table, and dropped into the waiting chair like a stone sinking in water. She crossed her arms, glaring at the table as if trying to threaten it into giving her a confession.

"Well, looks like someone's in a good mood," said Xander.

The glare was turned on him, and he winced away.

"Is this just you dealing with your problems, again, or should we be worried?" asked Willow.

Buffy gave a sigh, and leaned over the table, her head in her hands. "I saw something," she said. "Last night. It just… I don't know. It keeps bothering me."

"Last night? While you were on patrol, you mean?" asked Giles, suddenly interested.

"Was it a demon?" asked Willow. "Like, the big kind with the prophecy and the fake identity and stuff like that?"

"I don't know," said Buffy. She took a few long, steady breaths. "It was just… I met this guy."

"Oh, _that_ kind of trouble," said Xander.

"Not like that," said Buffy. "He was in the graveyard while I was on patrol. Talking to a vampire."

"And he attacked you?" asked Giles.

"Not really," said Buffy. "He just talked. A lot."

"Talking's good," Willow chimed in. "I like talking. And demons who talk are better than demons who do other things, like fighting and killing and trying to end the world and—"

Giles put up a hand to stop Willow's ramble. "Buffy," he said. "What did he say?"

"He said that I was better than this," said Buffy. "That I didn't have to do this anymore. That I didn't have to be the Slayer."

"Yes, well, you know why you have to," said Giles, softly. "It is your destiny."

"This guy's just using you," added Willow. "He's getting you out of the way so that he can do something really evil."

"I know," muttered Buffy. "That's what I told him."

The group looked at her, expecting her to go on, but she didn't.

"And?" asked Xander.

"He said he didn't want to lose me," said Buffy.

Giles sat down at the table, across from Buffy. "Buffy," he said, in a half-whisper. "This isn't about Angel, is it?"

"What?" Buffy looked up at him, sharply. "No! It's not Angel. Angel's — no one even mentioned Angel. This guy, in the graveyard, he wasn't Angel. He wasn't even a vampire."

"But he's human, right?" said Oz. "We shouldn't be worried or anything?"

"No," admitted Buffy. "He's not."

The group all looked at one another again. Giles adjusted his glasses, getting up and making his way over to the stacks.

"Yes, well, in that case," said Giles, "I believe we have some work to do. Identifying features? Anything unusual that would help to identify the species?"

"He scared the hell out of a vampire," said Buffy. "Oh, and he sounds English."

Giles blinked.

"What, like Giles-English?" asked Oz.

"Yeah, a bit," said Buffy. "Except, you know, different. Less subdued. A lot less subdued. Big mood swings and stuff."

"Emotionally unstable villains, never a good sign," said Xander.

"I don't know. I mean, compared to Giles, showing any emotion at all would probably look like a big mood swing," said Willow.

"Yes, well, accents and regional differences aside, were there any physical features that you found particularly important?" asked Giles.

"I don't know," said Buffy. "Tall, thin. Spiky hair. Cool skin — I mean, not vampire undead cold, but cool. Oh, and two hearts."

Giles nearly jumped out of his skin when he heard this part. "Sorry, two… two hearts, did you say?" he asked.

Buffy looked up at her watcher. This last tidbit of information she had given had severely unnerved him. He now looked completely frazzled, in that subdued, British way he had, and there was a look of horror on his face almost akin to the one she'd seen last night when the stranger had called her Buffy.

Giles was now digging through the books in his library, muttering something beneath his breath that Buffy couldn't quite catch. He took out a very old book, with yellow, brittle pages, and flipped it open. "Did he look anything like this?" he asked.

Buffy stared at the full page illustration in front of her. There, in a sketch that was dated 1547, was the man she had seen the previous night. He had exactly the same hair, exactly the same eyes, exactly the same serious expression on his face. The same tie, even. And, odder still…

The same gash on his forehead.

The same cut on his cheek.

They looked as if they'd been significantly healed from the previous evening, but even so, Buffy clearly recognized them. Those were the injuries she'd given him. This wasn't an old sketch, it had to be a new one.

Beneath it was the caption: "The Doctor."

"That's him," said Buffy, trying to sound nonchalant and cool about the whole thing. She was not helped by Giles' increasingly worried expression.

"1547," noted Willow. "That makes him, what, like, four hundred and fifty years old?"

"Far older than that, I'm afraid," said Giles. "This is not the earliest mention of him. He appears in oral traditions of the Native Americans, on ancient Sumerian tablets, even in paintings on cave walls, in the early days of man. He even pops up in the mythology of the Old Ones — a vengeful god who smites his enemies, an oncoming storm who can never be stopped."

"Okay, I'm with you on the ominous danger thing so far," said Oz.

"I'm sensing impending apocalypse, here, people," said Xander.

Buffy slammed her hands down on the table. "Just stop!" she demanded. "It's not funny, okay? Yeah, I'm having problems, yeah, I'm still upset over what happened with Angel last year. But this isn't helping!" She shoved the book off the table, and Giles made a dive to catch it before it could hit the ground. Willow managed to catch the book instead. Buffy huffed. "Oh, seriously! I know the book's a fake. I gave that Doctor guy those injuries last night, not in 1547. So really, which of you thought this up?"

"Actually, the Doctor is a time traveler," said Giles. "And rather an infamous one at that. There are a number of organizations in the United Kingdom founded for the sole purpose of capturing him, and he's been on the Watchers Council's list of problems since the very beginning. Slayers often call him the Angel of Death."

"Why Angel of Death?" asked Willow.

"As I said, he's been seen before," said Giles. "Quite often, as it happens, around Slayers. Particularly around the moment of their deaths. It's said that every time a Slayer sees the Doctor, it means she is going to die. Usually about an hour later. Sometimes up to three hours, if she's lucky."

Xander, Willow, and Oz stared at Giles. Buffy felt her heart pounding.

"You mean… Buffy…?" began Oz.

"Well, she's already survived the night," said Giles, "and that's never happened before. I'd say Buffy might be our best shot at beating this one."

"Okay, so what is he, exactly?" asked Xander. "Two hearts, that doesn't sound like a demon."

"He's an alien," said Willow.

The entire group looked over at her. Willow gestured at the book. "Well, I mean, that's what it says here is all."

"No, she's right," said Giles. "He's an alien. A Time Lord, I believe the title is. And not a very nice one at that. There are rumors at Torchwood that he once killed ten billion people in one blow."

"Torchwood?" asked Oz.

"An organization in the United Kingdom," Giles explained. "Founded by Queen Victoria to protect England against… well, basically, against the Doctor."

"Trust Buffy to fall for another psycho guy," said Xander.

"What else does the book say about Time Lords, Willow?" Buffy asked in an exaggeratedly loud voice, trying to shut Xander up.

Willow peered down at the book. "Okay, here. Time Lord. A mythical race of aliens known for their advanced level of technology and their abilities to travel through time. Known as the ancient, ancestral enemies of the vampires, every Time Lord must swear an oath to destroy any vampire he or she comes across."

"That doesn't sound so bad," said Oz.

"The enemy of my enemy is not always my friend," Giles pointed out.

"Yeah, yesterday that vampire said something about how if the Doctor's friends found out there were vampires here, bad things would happen," put in Buffy.

"The name which strikes fear into the heart of every vampire is that of Rassilon," continued Willow, "a legendary Time Lord who fought a war against the Great Vampires, destroying nearly all of them and bringing the Dark Times to a close. However, given that the reader of this book is most likely residing on Earth, chances are, you haven't selected this book to read up on Rassilon. You will, of course, be wondering about the Doctor."

"Sort of a snarky book," said Xander.

"The Doctor," read Willow, "is one of the most evil creatures in the cosmos. Also known as the Destroyer of Worlds, the Bringer of Darkness, and the Oncoming Storm, he is merciless, deadly, undefeatable, and unstoppable. His most deadly weapon is his 'magic voice', and he is commonly known to resort to talking instead of more conventional weaponry. He is the master of all lies, and should never be believed. Often rumored to be immortal, the Doctor is, in fact, quite capable of dying, but has a unique talent for changing his face upon the point of death. If found, the Doctor should be captured and handed over to the Watchers Council at once. Preferably alive. Identifying features are his peculiar double heart beat, his habit of rambling on incessantly, and his big blue box. Under no…" Willow trailed off, just staring at the page, the words not wanting to leave her lips.

"What?" asked Oz.

Willow looked over at Buffy, and Buffy could see the worry in her friend's eyes. Willow swallowed, nervously, then looked back down at the page. "Under no circumstances should the Doctor ever be allowed near Miss Elizabeth Anne Summers."


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Buffy tries to work out whether the Doctor is a good guy or an evil guy.

"What?" said Buffy, Oz, and Xander at the same time.

"That's just what it says here," Willow protested, showing them the page. "I didn't make it up!"

Buffy grabbed the book, and stared at the printed words. Sure enough, there it was, in black and white. _Under no circumstances should the Doctor ever be allowed near Miss Elizabeth Anne Summers._ Buffy flipped to the front of the book. It was published in 1550. She had been mentioned, specifically, by name, in association with a time-travelling alien she'd only just met, nearly 500 years before she'd been born. Buffy skimmed the article once more, her head analyzing the information she had gathered about her new acquaintance, but every time she tried to put the pieces together, she just got more and more confused.

"Okay, why?" asked Buffy.

"He must have mentioned you to the Watchers Council," said Willow. "Like, when he went back in time."

"Yeah, got that," said Buffy. "What I mean is, it says here that he's the master of all lies. Okay, so he lied to me. Why?"

"To win your trust and then stab you in the back," said Xander. "That's why most demons lie."

"Then why did he tell me there was no goodness left inside of me?" asked Buffy. "Does that sound like something you'd say to gain someone's trust?"

"Well, maybe he was just, you know, slipping a little on his disguise," proposed Willow.

Buffy shook her head. "You didn't see it," she said. She looked over at the book again. "Something is wrong with that book. Something's wrong with… with all of this. The Doctor, he's got a soul. I could feel it. He cared about what happened to me. And when he said stuff, it just felt… right."

Willow, Xander, and Giles all exchanged looks over Buffy's head. "Magic voice," they agreed.

"It wasn't a magic voice," said Buffy. "That's not why he got to me. He just… made me think. I mean, he's right. I never got a choice. I had to become the Slayer. Destiny and stuff. But think about it. Maybe, if I'd gotten that choice, I'd be different. Maybe I'd be better than this."

"This is precisely what the Doctor's famous for back in the United Kingdom," said Giles. "Destroying young minds. He kidnaps human girls from their homes, with the promise of making them better. But when they return — if they return — they are changed. Altered. Their friends say they hardly recognize them anymore."

"You think he's bewitched Buffy?" asked Willow.

Buffy could feel anger flaring through every cell of her body. "He didn't bewitch me," she snapped. "He just made me think."

"Yeah, so think about this," said Xander. "Not human. Bringer of Darkness, Destroyer of Worlds, killed ten billion people."

"Rumored," muttered Buffy.

"Point being, you find evil guys, you slay them," said Xander. "That's pretty much what being the Slayer means."

"I don't kill creatures with souls," said Buffy.

"Well, but you killed Angel, and he had a soul," started Willow, but when she noticed Buffy's death glare, she added, quietly, "sorry."

"Willow's got a point, though," said Xander. "Soul or not, you slay the bad guys."

"And where does it end?" Buffy demanded. "One day, I'm killing demons without souls. Next, I'm killing aliens with souls. How long before I move on to human beings?" She stopped herself. "Oh, my God," she muttered. "That's just what the Doctor told me last night."

Xander gave her a proud smile. "See? Evil guy. Brainwashing. Slayer time."

Buffy held her head in her hands. She didn't say anything. This was all making her incredibly uncomfortable. That conversation, everything the Doctor had said to her last night — it shouldn't keep bothering her like this. But the Doctor's words just kept popping back into her head when she least expected it. Was Xander right? Had she been brainwashed? She didn't feel like she had. She'd been hypnotized by the Master, before, but this didn't feel like that. No, Buffy decided. this wasn't brainwashing. It was more like… she'd heard the words before. Like she'd always known they were true.

Except…

At the end. When the Doctor had looked at her as if she'd been the monster. What had he thought she'd done? What had made him lose faith in her? And why did this matter so much?

Because even though she'd just met the Doctor, even though she didn't know him and had been trying her hardest to kill him, she wanted him to believe in her. She wanted him to tell her she was right, that what she was doing was justified, that she was saving the Earth. And it shouldn't bother her this much that an evil villain type like the Doctor thought she was no good.

She was about to ask something more, when she thought she saw something moving out of the corner of her eye. She turned, but there was nothing there. Okay. That was weird. Sort of like last night. But there was this feeling in her head, now, too — not Slayer senses, but something else, something confusing. She closed her eyes and focused her mind, and the feeling went away. She had to stop pushing herself like this.

"Are you okay, Buffy?" asked Willow.

"Yeah, just tired, is all," said Buffy. She looked over at Giles. "Giles, those other Slayers, did the Doctor kill them?"

"Pardon?" asked Giles.

"You said every time a Slayer sees the Doctor, she dies," said Buffy. "Was he the one who killed them?"

"Well, actually, no," said Giles. "Not directly. But then, with a time traveler, it's always a little hard to tell what he's caused and what he hasn't. In general, though, he's considered more of a harbinger of death. An omen of evil. It's said that wherever the Doctor shows up, trouble follows."

Buffy knew that saying far too well. It was what people always said about her.

"I've got to think about this," said Buffy, gathering her school books.

"Buffy, I really don't think you should get involved," said Giles. "I'll ask Faith to fill in for you, tonight."

Buffy glared at him. "Oh, no, you don't," she said. "I'm doing this one myself."

"You know what the book said," said Willow. "He's not just going after the Slayer or anything. He's going after you, personally. If he does come back, you're going to be his primary target."

Buffy stood up. "Then it shouldn't be that hard to find him, should it?"

And with that, Buffy walked out of the library. She was going to find this Doctor herself, without help, and when she did, she was either going to assist him, capture him, or kill him. She just didn't know which.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Angel gives Buffy some interesting new information about the Doctor.

"Are you all right?" asked Angel. "You look upset."

Buffy had brought Angel some blood from the butcher's, the way she was accustomed to recently. It was one of the other reasons she didn't want Faith involved in this. She was worried that someone would discover Angel. She couldn't risk that.

"It's nothing," said Buffy. "Don't worry about it."

"Tell me," urged Angel.

"I just… met someone last night," said Buffy. She waved her hands in front of her face, as if to dismiss Angel's assumptions before he could express them. "Not like that. Just, you know. Slayer stuff."

"Who?"

Buffy gave a flat laugh. "This is going to sound crazy," said Buffy. "But he's some kind of alien called a Time Lord. His name's the Doctor."

The name provoked a wild and unexpected reaction from Angel. It was as if a bolt of lightning had burst through his body, making him jolt back to life. "What?"

Buffy surveyed Angel, her brows furrowing in concern. "You know him?"

"No," said Angel, a little too quickly. Buffy could hear the fear in his voice. He placed his hands on his knees, trying to school his face into something approaching normality. After a few seconds, noticing that Buffy wasn't saying anything back to this, he winced. "He… didn't mention me, did he?"

"No," said Buffy. "Did you expect him to?"

Angel said nothing, and it became apparent, after a few seconds, that he wouldn't.

Buffy pushed her hair back behind her ears. "When I talked to Giles about it, he showed me this book. It's from 1547. It says the Doctor is some sort of all powerful evil… thing that enjoys killing people. It says he bewitches his enemies using a magic voice."

"The book is lying."

Buffy felt relieved by this, although she wasn't sure why. It was like Angel had just validated everything she'd been thinking all day. "Yeah, I kind of thought as much," said Buffy. "When I told Giles and the others, they all thought that the Doctor had bewitched me, but… I've felt what that's like. You know, with the Master and all that hypnosis stuff? And the Doctor didn't do that. I'm sure he didn't."

"No, he wouldn't have," said Angel.

"And I don't think he was lying, either," said Buffy. "I mean, obviously he had to be because he kept talking about things that didn't happen the way he said, but… I don't know…. Everything he said… it just keeps bothering me."

"What did he say?"

"He said — this is going to sound crazy, but he said he knew me. That we met back in Hemery High School, at that dance where the gym burned down. He thought we were friends."

Angel didn't reply, just stared down at his hands, which were folded on his lap.

"You aren't saying that sounds crazy," Buffy pointed out, a little uneasily.

"Buffy," said Angel, so softly that Buffy had to strain to hear him, "do you trust me?"

"Yeah," said Buffy. "Of course. I mean, as long as you're… still you."

Angel looked deep into her eyes, a very serious expression planted on his face. "I want you to stay away from the Doctor."

It took a few seconds for this to sink in. Buffy blinked at Angel, trying to work things out in her mind, but it was like solving two puzzles at once with all the pieces jumbled together. No, it was like solving four.

"That's… that's just what the book said," said Buffy. "But you said the book was lying."

"It is," said Angel. "But I'm not. If you don't stay away from him, Buffy, he will destroy you. I've seen it happen before."

Buffy remembered what Giles had said — that the Doctor was well known, in England, for kidnapping young girls and bringing them home changed. Altered. Unrecognizable. Had Angel seen this, too? If it was true, if the Doctor really did do things like that, then Buffy knew what she had to do.

"So I do have to kill him," said Buffy. She wasn't sure why she felt so disappointed about it. As if she'd really, really thought that this time, she wouldn't. But she'd known, right away. The moment she'd seen him, she'd known she had to kill him.

Angel was in front of her in an instant, grabbing her hands in his. "Don't," he said.

"But you just said…"

"And I meant it. But don't kill him."

Buffy raised an eyebrow at Angel. She tugged her hands away, so she could place them on her hips. "And why not?"

Angel gave an annoyed sigh, and slunk back a few steps. "Because if I let you kill him, you'd never forgive me."

Buffy felt a surge of frustration running through her. This was taking cryptic to a new level. "Angel, what is going on?" she demanded. "Who is this guy?"

Angel sighed. "You know that already. You just want me to tell you if he's a good guy or a bad guy."

Buffy shifted from foot to foot. "Well, yeah," she confessed. "That would help."

"I can't," said Angel. "It's not as simple as that."

"Does he have a soul?"

"Yes."

"Then he's a good guy," said Buffy.

"Buffy, he's a Time Lord," said Angel. "In the end, it doesn't matter if he's a good guy or a bad guy. He's got a telepathic link to the other members of his own species. And if they ever find out that he's seen vampires here, the Earth is doomed."

"What are you talking about?"

"It's what they do," said Angel. "The Time Lords. Vampires are like pests to them, and they'll destroy whole worlds to wipe them out of the universe. If they find out there are vampires here, they'll blow up the sun, or stick the Earth within a time loop, or fold the planet into a slowly compressing pocket of space-time."

"But there aren't just vampires here," said Buffy. "There are humans here, too."

"They don't care," said Angel. "Humans are like ants to Time Lords. It doesn't matter how many they kill, as long as they get rid of the vampires. But think about it, Buffy. If the Doctor is on Earth, if we can keep one of their own here…"

"Then we've got something to bargain with," Buffy realized. That made her feel even worse. If the Doctor had just been evil, then at least Buffy would have an easy conscience. But hurting someone, locking him up indefinitely far away from home, potentially for his entire life, just because they were using him as a bargaining chip — that was more like something a villain would do. But it was for the Earth. That made it okay, right? One life for six billion? Buffy felt for the concealed knife at her side, and her stomach turned over as she touched it. She was beginning to have real doubts about this. "That means I've got to capture him," she said, more to herself than to Angel. "For the Earth."

Angel faltered. Buffy heard a distant wheezing, groaning sound echoing through the air. Angel recognized the sound. She could tell by the fear in his eyes.

"It's him," said Angel. "He's come back for you." He clutched Buffy's hands. His knuckles were icy cold beneath her fingertips.

"Why?" asked Buffy. "If humans are like ants to Time Lords, then why does he care about me?"

"They are to most Time Lords," said Angel. "Not to him."

Way to pile on the guilt. Buffy cleared her throat. "But why _me_?"

Angel didn't answer.

Buffy examined his expression, the worry that lay buried inside every crease of his forehead, inside every muscle of his jaw. Every bone in his body was begging her not to go. But his mouth couldn't quite get out the words.

"Don't—" he managed, but then stopped, hesitating.

Buffy drew away from Angel, with as much gentle reassurance as she could give him. "I'm sorry," she said. "I have to."


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Buffy meets the Doctor again.

As Buffy rounded the mausoleum, she noticed that the graveyard looked different than it had the previous night. There was something off about it, something she didn't remember. It took her a few seconds to notice what it was.

There was a big blue box standing in one corner of the cemetery.

Not a box, Buffy realized. A… phone booth? The kind they had in England, actually. Except it was bigger and bluer than she'd thought, and it didn't have those glass pannelly thingies on the sides. Oh, and it had a big light at the top. Or did most English phone boxes have those things?

Buffy remembered Giles' book. It said the Doctor was easily identified by his tendency to ramble, his double heart beat, and his blue box. Well, here was the box. Buffy figured they probably didn't have phones back in 1547, so they probably wouldn't have been able to work out what it was.

She glanced around, and jumped back. The Doctor was not five feet away from her, leaning against the side of the mausoleum, his legs crossed and his hands in his pockets. He must have been completely silent, wandering around. Buffy wasn't usually that easy to sneak up on.

His injuries had completely healed, not even a hint of a scar to show where Buffy had slashed him last night. Either he was an incredibly fast healer, or it had been more than a day, for him, since they last met. Time travel. Right.

The Doctor pulled a hand out of his pocket, and waggled his fingers at her. "Hello," he said, with a smile. Buffy could see that the smile didn't reach his eyes. No, there was something desperately angry in those eyes, as if he'd just witnessed something horrifying and terrible, and didn't want to talk about it.

Buffy stood in front of him, determination pouring through her veins. She gave him her best I'm-the-Slayer-and-what-are-you-gonna-do-about-it look, but it yielded no reaction from him.

"Why are you here?" she demanded.

The Doctor put his hand back in his pocket, and looked at her, seriously. "I want to help you."

"Last night, you thought I was beyond help," said Buffy.

"I was wrong," said the Doctor. "Had a bit of a jaunt through time since then. Worked a few things out. Figured out where the real problem was."

"Yeah, I heard you made a reputation for yourself," said Buffy. "Angel of death. Every time a Slayer sees you, she dies. Care to explain that?"

The Doctor's eyes went dark. "I couldn't save them," he said. "Not a single one. That's not how Time works. Everything has its time, and everything dies."

"And this is my time to die, then," said Buffy.

"I didn't say that."

"You didn't have to."

"You're not going to die," insisted the Doctor, "because I intend to save you."

"Maybe I don't need to be saved," said Buffy. "Maybe I can save myself. You ever thought of that?"

The Doctor sighed. "Oh, Elizabeth," he said. "I've been thinking that for the last fifty years. That's why I never visited you. That's why I never came to see if you were okay."

"I told you," said Buffy. "My name isn't Elizabeth. It's Buffy."

"Buffy the Vampire Slayer."

"Yes," said Buffy. The way he said it made it sound all wrong, all jangled and dissonant, as if it weren't really her name at all.

"But that's not who you really are," said the Doctor. "You're not Buffy the Slayer. You're Elizabeth Summers the human being. The brilliant, amazing human being, the one who could out-think a Dalek, the one who was able to fool the Mayor, the one who prevented the Master from resurrecting himself within the Eye of Harmony. You're not a slayer. You're not a killer. You're a human being. Never forget that."

Buffy felt the uneasiness settling back in her limbs. She crushed it down, looking just as brave and determined as ever. "Giles' book said I should stay away from you."

The Doctor raised an eyebrow. "Did it?"

"Yeah."

The Doctor's eyes brightened at this. "Really?" he asked, intrigued, a half-smile on his face. "Did it say anything else?"

"It said you had a magic voice and bewitched your opponents," said Buffy. "And it said not to believe a word you told me."

The Doctor's enthusiasm faded a hair. "Ah," he said.

"So?" said Buffy. "Why do the Watchers hate you so much?"

"They don't," said the Doctor. "They're afraid of me."

Buffy felt a frisson of fear run down her spine. Had Angel been right? Had this been a bad idea? She'd seen how that anonymous vampire had reacted to the Doctor last night. She'd seen how Giles had reacted to his name. And then there was Angel. Why was everyone so scared of the Doctor? He seemed harmless enough. So far, he hadn't even tried to kill her, yet.

(So far, he didn't even seem to want to.)

"Why are they afraid of you?" asked Buffy.

"Because I know their secret," said the Doctor. "And they're afraid of what I might do with it."

"What secret?"

The Doctor's eyes went very, very dark, and he stood completely motionless. It was the posture of a man who knew that if he didn't keep his emotions in check, they would consume him.

"I know what the Slayer really is," said the Doctor. "I know more about it than anyone else in the universe. I know what their Shadow Men did to create it. The Watchers are afraid I'll take revenge. On them, on their Slayers, on the world." He took a deep breath that misted in front of him, and a mask of friendly indifference slammed down across his face. "Still, what's past is past. Nothing I can do about it, now. Far more concerned, at the moment, with stopping whatever's coming through."

"Something's coming through?" asked Buffy.

"Oh, yes," said the Doctor. "The Shadow Men didn't know what they were doing when they created you lot. The Watchers still don't understand how the process is supposed to work. But I do. And it's working wrong. Something's been using the Slayers to break through into this reality. It's been gathering energy, gathering it for centuries. Whatever it wants that much energy for can't be good. I have to stop it."

"Okay, so the point of this ramble is that there's an evil demon trying to manifest in our world," said Buffy.

"Basically," said the Doctor.

Buffy rolled her eyes. Talk about anticlimactic. "Well, I could have told you that already," said Buffy. "That sort of thing happens all the time in Sunnydale. In case you hadn't noticed, you're standing on the Hellmouth."

"No, I'm not," said the Doctor. "And neither are you. Not yet. We're standing on top of a temporal explosive device, one with the power and ability to create the Hellmouth. A device like that has the power to rewrite time, to create a massive rift through time and space, across past, present, and future. What you're seeing now, the history you've lived to this point, is the peak point in the probability curve, the most likely outcome of the bomb's detonation. But if we can close that probability, disarm the bomb, then we can eliminate that rift. Make sure this something that's breaking through will have to start from scratch."

"In English, please?" asked Buffy.

The Doctor raised an eyebrow, and nodded over Buffy's shoulder. Buffy turned, and saw a vague something in the moonlight, but it was… there and not there, all at once. It was shadowy, like a malevolent black smoke, and at the same time, it was nothing, just a whisper of a thought in the wind. All at once, the air seemed to fold in on itself, and the maybe-there-maybe-not thing was gone. Buffy turned back to the Doctor.

"What was that?"

"A potential temporal probability," said the Doctor. "It's not really there, not yet. But it's trying to tear apart the walls of the universe to get through."

"Yeah, okay," said Buffy. "Fine, then. Demons invading from another reality. I can handle it. I deal with this sort of thing all the time."

"This is different," said the Doctor. "I know what you can and cannot handle, Elizabeth. If you could handle this on your own, I'd let you. But you can't. You need help."

"I've got plenty of help," said Buffy. "I've even got an extra Slayer around."

"I know you don't trust me," said the Doctor. "I know you don't remember me. But know this. I came back to Sunnydale to help you. I can stop this, Elizabeth. I can stop the Hellmouth, stop the monsters, stop this madness. Or I can leave it to chance." He shrugged. "In the end, it's your choice."

"How so?" asked Buffy.

"Well," said the Doctor, looking straight into her eyes, "that is why you've come to meet me, after all. The Watchers Council wants me, dead or alive. And you're here to make sure they get me."

Buffy faltered. She dug the knife out of her pocket, and looked back at the Doctor. Her hands were shaking. Would she do it? Would she condemn an innocent man to become a bargaining chip? No. Focus, Buffy. Keep it together. There was no reason this guy should be getting to her like this. It didn't make sense. She had to think about this rationally. The Watchers Council didn't like him. Her Slayer senses didn't like him. Giles didn't like him. Angel didn't like him. There had to be some reason the Doctor was bad. There had to be some way he was evil.

(Buffy really, really needed him to be evil.)

"You said… the Watchers Council is afraid you're going to take revenge on the Earth," said Buffy. "Why?"

The Doctor stared off into the distance. "Have you ever felt that terrible echo of loneliness?" asked the Doctor. "It's like the uncry of a thousand voices in your head. It's like the souls of every person you ever knew, every person you've ever met, have crumbled to dust beneath your fingers. And it never goes away. Even in a crowd, even surrounded by friends, even after you've just saved another planet, it's still there. In the back of your mind. That lonely echo, that gaping chasm of emptiness. As if there's no one left alive to hear you scream. And you try. You try so hard to be like the others, to be just another person, living your own life. But there's always something that reminds you you're different. Something that reminds you that you can't join their world, no matter how hard you try. You're not them. You're alone. The only one left alive in the universe. The only one in all of time and space." He looked back at her. "Have you felt that, Elizabeth?"

Buffy felt her breath catch in her throat. Yes. She had. So often. Ever since she'd become the Slayer, ever since she'd been Chosen, it'd been like that. All the time. She'd longed to be like other girls, longed to be the person she would have been, if she hadn't been Chosen, if she hadn't become the Slayer. But it always ended in disaster. Less than a week ago, she'd nearly killed Cordelia by running against her for homecoming queen. And that just drove it home, further and further into Buffy's mind, that she was alone. Not even the presence of another Slayer could ease that pain.

"Always," said Buffy.

The Doctor nodded. "Do you feel it now? That telepathic silence in your head? That loneliness?"

Buffy hesitated. "A little."

"Less now than before I arrived?"

"Yeah."

The Doctor gave her a sad smile. "And that's their secret," he said. "That's why they're afraid I'll take revenge."

Buffy didn't understand what he meant.

The Doctor walked towards her, hands outstretched before him, to show he had no weapons. "What happens next is up to you," he said, very quietly. "I could save the world, I could help save your life. Or you could kill me." He stopped, right in front of her, the knife she held in her hand resting against his rightmost heart. He looked deep into her eyes. "Are you going to kill me, Elizabeth?"

Buffy stared at him. There was something in the Doctor's eyes, something she knew so well from Angel. It was trust. Why? Why did he trust her? She'd tried to kill him last night. And tonight — well, he knew she was out there to capture him. He'd somehow gone from thinking there wasn't any good left in her to trusting her to do the right thing.

What should she do? What was right for the Earth? But she didn't want to think about that, right now. Because her mind just kept screaming at her — he knew! He knew how it felt to be the only one in the world. He knew how it felt to be that alone, to be so much like the others and yet know, in your heart, that you were different. That you could never join their world, as much as you might want to. He knew. And why did that make her feel like she wasn't so alone anymore? Why was it the Doctor, and not another Slayer, that made her feel like there was someone else, someone like her? That she wasn't really the only one after all?

Buffy dropped the knife on the ground.

The Doctor beamed, a large, ecstatic grin that lit up his face. "Brilliant," he said, reaching forward and taking her hand in his.

Buffy yanked her hand away. "I'm not saying I like you or anything," said Buffy. "I just think I can trust you. Call it a trial run. If you…"

She trailed off, as she realized that the Doctor wasn't listening. There was a spark in his eyes, as if he'd noticed something was amiss with the world, and couldn't quite put his finger on what. He stood, beneath the faint glow of the moon, his brow creased, his eyes darting around the graveyard. His posture was tenser, as if he were gearing up for a chase.

A lion waiting to pounce, Buffy thought. "Doctor?"

All of a sudden, the Doctor spun around on his heel, turning away from Buffy. His eyes fixed on a distant spot between two trees, and those deep brown eyes widened in recognition.

"You!" he said.

Buffy followed his gaze, and saw a terrified-looking Angel as he stood between those trees. Buffy felt her heart racing. Why had Angel followed her? He was too weak to help her. He was too weak to help anyone right now. He couldn't even defend himself. All he could do was get discovered, and that was exactly what had happened. What if the Doctor told? What if Faith found out? Faith would kill Angel in a second, Buffy was sure.

At the sound of the Doctor's voice, Angel turned and fled.

The Doctor darted forward, trying to pursue Angel. "No, wait!" he called. "I just want to—"

His speech was dramatically truncated as he was hit on the head by a large wooden plank. Buffy watched as the Doctor dropped to the ground, Faith standing over him, unsheathing a sword.

"I'll say this, you sure can pick 'em, B," said Faith, twirling the sword in her hand, and looking down at the unconscious alien. "The higher the death count, the cuter they are." She gave a half-smile, then prepared to strike the Doctor through with her sword.

Buffy lunged at Faith, and toppled her mostly out of the way. The knife sliced through the Doctor's arm, instead, and the Doctor took in a sharp breath, as blood seeped out from the wound. Faith gave Buffy an annoyed look, as she got up.

"You know, you should really stop falling for bad boys in this line of work," said Faith. She glanced over at the Doctor, and made a face. "Yeuch," she said. "His blood's orange."

Buffy looked over, and stared. His blood was a little more orangey than human blood, true. But that wasn't the weirdest thing about it. There was something inside of his blood, something resonant and musical, as if the song of the universe were coursing through his veins.

Seriously, who was this guy?

"The Watchers Council wants him alive," said Buffy, emphatically, as Faith picked up her sword.

"Yeah, but they didn’t say I couldn't rough him up a little, first," said Faith.

Buffy put herself between Faith and the Doctor. "You've done enough," she said. "Leave."

"Come on, B," said Faith. "You know I can't do that. Giles was pretty clear about this. You plus him equals bad stuff. I gotta get him back to the library."

"And you don't trust me to do it?" asked Buffy.

"No," said Faith. "I don't."

Buffy gave Faith her most intimidating look. Faith sighed, then pulled out the tranquilizer gun that she had strapped across her back, the one they kept around for Oz's transformation nights. Before Buffy could stop her, she shot the Doctor in the back, and the tension on his face fell away, as he drifted into complete unconsciousness.

"Fine," said Faith. "You can carry him, now that I know he's really out."

"You didn't have to do that," said Buffy.

"What's your problem, B?" asked Faith. "He's the bad guy, we're the Slayers. We're doing the world a favor getting rid of him."

"He said he could stop whatever was coming through," said Buffy.

"And you believed him?"

"Yeah," Buffy admitted, quietly. And she was surprised to realize it was true.

Faith rolled her eyes. "Just bring him back to the library, B," she said.

Buffy hoisted the Doctor over her shoulder, and followed Faith back to the library. She wondered if there was any way that she could redeem the situation, now that it had all gone so wrong.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Doctor tries to convince the Scoobies to let him save the world.

"Xander, quit bothering the alien," said Willow.

Said alien was now sitting up in the cage in the library, his arms and legs restrained with Duct Tape, and a strip of Duct Tape around his mouth. Buffy had been surprised at how long he'd been unconscious. She'd thought, for just a second, that he'd woken up while she was carrying him back to the library. But when she'd lain him down in the cage, he'd seemed just as out of it as he was before.

Willow, Xander, and Giles had been hard at work since Buffy had departed. They'd apparently scraped together a fair number of things about the alien being known as the Doctor, including the fact that he was a rather talented escape artist. Which meant that the moment Buffy entered the library, Willow was ready with all sorts of different containment spells and things, and Xander was sporting a whole array of charms and amulets that were supposed to fend off Time Lords.

He was now testing them out.

"Come on," said Xander, waving around what looked like a red gemstone attached to a long, golden chain. "This one's got to work. It's the Heart of Quazilottle."

The Doctor muttered something through the Duct-Tape — a correction, Buffy thought, although the words were completely incomprehensible. He did seem unnerved by the object, but not in the standard vampire-reacting-to-cross way. More in the toddler-holding-deadly-chainsaw way. Xander, not getting the reaction he'd expected, sighed, and dropped the object onto the floor. That action really did alarm the Doctor, and he started yelling something angry-sounding through the gag. Buffy caught the amulet before it hit the ground, and the Doctor looked relieved.

"Better stop it with the amulets," she said to Xander, handing it back. "Don't want to get him too worked up."

Xander shrugged, then went over to help Willow and Giles with their latest research project.

The Doctor looked over at Buffy, his eyes pleading with her. Buffy was tempted to give in, and let him out, but she'd had some time to think about this, while he'd been unconscious. Buffy had thought about what Angel had said, about what might happen if the Doctor left this planet, and she decided that, whether he deserved it or not, this was the right thing to do. She could stop this demon that was coming through on her own, if she had to. It was her job. But the Doctor had to be contained here on Earth. Used as a bargaining chip for six billion lives.

That didn't make her feel any better.

"Does he have to be all, you know, Duct-Tapey and tied up and stuff?" asked Buffy.

"Magic voice, B," Faith reminded her, pacing the room. "You know the drill."

"Faith is right," said Giles, from the far side of the library, open book in hand. "Representatives from the Watchers Council are on their way. In a short period of time, you won't have to worry about him anymore. But I'm afraid that until then, it's our responsibility to make sure he doesn't escape."

The Doctor had now positioned himself so that his Duct-Taped hands rested against the edge of the cage, his fingers sliding through the grating, edging closer and closer to one of Xander's dropped amulets on the floor. He was obviously trying to do it sneakily, but Buffy noticed the action. She met the Doctor's eyes, and gave him her most reprimanding expression. For a moment, he tried to feign innocence. Then, he winked at her, and made a motion to snatch it. Faith noticed the movement. Before he could get his hands on the little white gemstone, Faith ducked in and grabbed it. She held it out before the Doctor, letting it swing from side to side.

"Want something?" she asked.

The Doctor now looked slightly desperate, and very frustrated. He turned to Buffy, and pleaded with his eyes for her to help him. Faith looked at Buffy.

"He must know you're a sucker for a cute face," said Faith. "The way he keeps going on at you."

Buffy was shifting from foot to foot. Yeah, she knew what everyone was telling her made sense. Yeah, she knew it was probably better to just lock this guy up and forget about him forever. She just didn't want to. And anyways, there really was something trying to come through, just like he'd said. She'd seen it, back in the graveyard. That there-but-not-there something. What if he was right? What if they really did need him to stop it?

Buffy had, of course, told this all to the others when she entered the library. She'd told them what she'd seen in the graveyard — the demon that was coming through the Hellmouth. That's what they were doing now — looking up information on what this demon might be and how to stop it. But they didn't want the Doctor's help. They thought Buffy was crazy for even suggesting it.

Buffy turned and watched the others, scrambling around and looking through books. Why had the Doctor wanted to help them, anyways? It wasn't his planet. It wasn't his people. Was it just that he thought he should, like he had some moral responsibility? Was it because he'd done something to her, in another timeline, and felt guilty about it now? Had he seen something in the future, her death, maybe, and come back to save her life? Or was he just some manipulative bad-guy who was trying to get something out of this himself?

As she watched the others, Buffy thought she saw something out of the corner of her eye. She spun around, but there was nothing there. Just like before. But not like before. This time, it felt like… there should be something when she looked. Or maybe it was more accurate to say there could be something. Like she could almost see it, if she looked hard enough, could almost feel it on the periphery of her senses…

The Doctor's voice sliced through the air, loud and clear and Englishy, cutting into Buffy's train of thought.

"No, wait, just, please. You have to listen to me," he was saying. "You're all in terrible, terrible danger!"

Buffy turned around to find the Doctor had somehow managed to free himself from the Duct Tape restraints and was now standing up, clutching the grating of the cage, trying desperately to be heard.

The others all seemed too frightened to actually open the cage and go in there and fix the situation, but weren't really sure what to do. Willow put her fingers in her ears. Giles was doing his traditional, subdued, 'I'm worried but I'm too English to express it' shuffle. Xander waltzed in front of Willow, holding up another amulet as if to ward the Doctor off. Faith was just looking like she wanted to kick the crap out of something.

"We're always in terrible danger," said Faith. "What makes this any different?"

"Something's breaking through," the Doctor told her. "Something from another plane of existence, something that's not of this reality. Whatever it is, it has to be stopped."

"Yeah?" said Faith. "Well, guess what? That happens nearly every week around here. B and I are Slayers. We can handle it."

"No, you can't," insisted the Doctor. "I know what being the Slayer means. I know what you can and can't do. And you can't stop this."

"And you can?" retorted Faith.

"Yes," said the Doctor. "I can."

"What… what is this thing that's coming through?" asked Willow, taking her fingers out of her ears. Then, looking at Giles, guiltily, she added, "I mean, if it's okay to ask."

The Doctor sighed. "I don't know," he admitted. "But it's bad. Very bad. This bomb, this… temporal explosive device, it's designed to slice right through into the higher dimensional folds of the universe. And I know what kinds of creatures are imprisoned in those higher dimensions. Believe me, I've put a few of them there myself. Whatever's coming through, I can guarantee, it's not good."

"Well, we sort of guessed that," said Xander. "We've been living on the Hellmouth our whole lives. We get the not-good-demon-breaking-through thing."

The Doctor banged his head against the grating of the cage. "No, you haven't actually been living on the Hellmouth, it's still just — sorry, could you, just, put down that Warpfold Quazi-Locational Modulator, please?"

"Warpfold what?" asked Xander.

"It's a Warpfold Quazi-Locational Modulator from a Mecholozephoid space ship, and it shouldn't be here," said the Doctor. "It can turn your entire nervous system to cinders in a second. Just, please, put it down."

Xander hesitated.

"Ditch the amulet, Xander," commanded Buffy.

Xander, a little sheepishly, did as he was told, placing the amulet carefully on the table. The Doctor gave a barely audible sigh of relief the moment the amulet was out of Xander's hand.

Faith caught the sound, and clearly regarded it as suspicious. In one swift movement, Faith pointed the tip of a knife at the Doctor's throat, so that its edge was right up against his neck. The Doctor looked completely unconcerned with the knife blade, as if getting death threats was a regular occurrence for him. He looked deep into Faith's eyes.

"Half an hour," he said. "That's all I need. After that, you can lock me up, kill me, dissect me, anything you like. Just let me do this."

"Let him," said Buffy.

The group stared at Buffy as if she was crazy.

"Buffy, you can't just let him loose," said Willow. "Half an hour, that's, like, thirty whole minutes on his own. Lots of things can happen in thirty minutes. Bad things like demons and monsters and dead-making."

"I'll stay with him," said Buffy. "I got Slayer powers. I can make sure he behaves."

"I'm certain you have good intentions, Buffy," said Giles. "But you know we can't take the risk. As it is, we're all potentially contaminated simply by hearing him speak. You most of all. In half an hour, there's no telling what sort of damage he could do. We might never manage to get him back."

The Doctor slumped in his cage. "Humans!" he muttered. "The planet's at stake, and all you want to do is lock up the alien!"

"What if he's right?" Buffy asked Giles and the others. "We know there is a demon coming through. What if the Doctor really can help?"

Faith gave the Doctor a menacing glare. "Who's to say he didn't bring it with him?"

"I didn't," said the Doctor.

"Ah, yes, he is known for doing that," confirmed Giles, ignoring the Doctor. "There's a small town in Wiltshire called Devil's End, where it's said that a Time Lord managed to summon a rather nasty sort of demon named Azal."

"That wasn't even me!" insisted the Doctor. "I was the one who stopped him!"

"And then, about ten years ago, in London," continued Giles, "it is said that the Doctor summoned into being enormous black creatures that fell from the sky, devouring people whole across the entire city. The only safe hiding place was in churches, and even then, there were a large number of people who simply popped out of existence."

The Doctor seemed to sag a little at those words, and Buffy could catch an emotion in his eyes — one she recognized so well. It was the hopelessness of someone who'd sacrificed their loved-one for the sake of the world, who'd had to give up everything and couldn't ever get it back. It was how she'd looked after she lost Angel.

"That was… a friend," said the Doctor, very quietly. "She's gone, now. Gone forever."

Buffy was about to reply, when she felt a sharp tug from her Slayer senses. She spun around, and caught the last wisps of the there-not-there-something as it folded up into the air and disappeared. This time, it had manifested right in the center of the library, less than one foot away from Xander. So why was everyone looking at her like she was the one acting weird?

Buffy waved a hand, vaguely, at the spot where it had appeared. "Didn't you see that?"

"See what?" asked Xander.

"There was something… over there…. something shadowy and demony that isn't really there but sort of is?" Buffy faltered, looking at the blank faces around her. Even Faith, the other Slayer, was staring at her like she was insane. "Faith?"

"They can't see it," said the Doctor. "And they won't. Not until it's too late. You and I are the only ones who can see the probabilities."

"Why?" asked Buffy. She pointed at Faith. "She's the Slayer, too. She should be seeing this."

"But she's not you," said the Doctor. "You've always been a bit… temporally complicated, Elizabeth. If you combine that with a fragment of a temporally aware consciousness, it opens up all sorts of abilities." He smiled at her, but there was something very earnest in his eyes. "And I told you. You're not the Slayer. You're just wonderful, brilliant Elizabeth Summers, who isn't afraid to do what's right. Don't ever forget that. Never forget your humanity."

"And now it's official, B," said Faith. "You've got the absolute worst taste in guys I've ever seen. Hands down. He's crazy, he's demony, he's got a death count higher than the population of this planet, and now he's giving you lectures about humanity!"

"Shut up," said Buffy. "I'm not trying to sleep with him. I'm just trying to see if he can help us."

"Buffy, just think about this," Willow pleaded with her. "I know he's taking you in by acting all nice and helpful and everything, but if you release him, it's only a matter of time before he flips out and starts going all psycho killer on us. This is just like Angel all over again."

The Doctor's head shot up at the name. "Angel?" he asked. "What do you…?"

In one swift movement, Buffy picked up the tranq gun, and shot the Doctor in his neck. He met her eyes with his own, and Buffy felt her hands shaking as she saw the betrayal therein. He only remained upright another few seconds, before he slumped to the floor, eyes closed.

Buffy lowered the gun. She could save the world just fine without this Doctor guy, if she needed to. But she couldn't risk the others finding out that Angel was still around. She couldn't risk anything happening to him, not when he was still this weak.

It was fifteen minutes after that, that the Watchers Council's helicopter landed, and the Doctor was bundled off into the back. Headed for England, where he would be held indefinitely in a prison cell. Just because he'd wanted to help her. Buffy couldn't help but feel a little bit guilty about that.

But Angel came first. Angel always came first.

Buffy just hoped she hadn't made a really stupid decision.


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Buffy receives the Doctor's last message to her.

It was Xander who first saw the message the Doctor had scrawled on the floor of the cage in the library. Xander was standing in the cage, staring at the message in fascination, trying to decide what to do. He looked around. Buffy was not there. She was still in serious teenage-angst-mode outside. Willow was trying to talk her down. Giles and Faith were in conference at the other end of the room.

"Uh, Giles?" called Xander. "You might want to check this out."

Giles and Faith hurried towards Xander, entering the cage and stopping as they both noticed the message. It had been scrawled, hurriedly, in pencil on the floor. None of them could work out when the Doctor had written it, or how it was that they'd managed to miss it when they were moving the Doctor to the helicopter. But there it was — a message, obviously intended for Buffy. One last desperate plea to get someone to listen to him.

"Well, this has 'trap' written all over it," said Faith.

"I think we can all agree that we should not tell Buffy," said Giles.

"Shouldn't tell me what?" asked Buffy, entering the library. Willow followed closely behind. The others tried to hide the message, but Buffy pushed through and read it for herself.

The message read:

Elizabeth—

Temporal explosive device situated beneath library. Explosion will open time/space rift, extending into past and future. Will rewrite time so that monsters have always inhabited Earth. Probability spread makes this appear to have already happened. It hasn't. Preventing explosion will close Hellmouth permanently, stop monster invasion. Detonation in 15 minutes. Setting 159B on sonic screwdriver (left pocket).

— the Doctor.

Buffy reached into her left pocket, and brought out the small, metal tube that she'd seen the Doctor use the previous evening. She stared at it, turning it over in her hand. Sure enough, it was already set to 159B. He must have slipped it into her pocket earlier that evening. Probably while she was carrying him back to the library. She'd thought he was unconscious. Buffy returned the metal tube to her pocket, and noticed there was something else in there. It felt like… a key on a piece of string? That was a weird thing to put in her pocket. She wondered what it was for.

"Right, fifteen minutes to save the world," said Buffy. "Sounds like fun."

"T-R-A-P spells trap," sing-songed Faith.

"Magical voice, remember Buffy?" prompted Willow.

"You can't blame this on a magical voice," complained Buffy. "It's a written note! And if there's any possibility that this is true, I have to make sure that nothing happens."

"Faith, go with her," Giles urged her.

Faith gave him an 'are-you-kidding-me' look. "If B wants to walk into a trap, that's fine, but I'm staying here. For all I know, he brainwashed her earlier in the evening, and the moment she's alone with me, she'll start trying to kill me."

"Fine," said Buffy, stuffing weapons and stakes into her pockets. "I didn't want help, anyways."

"Buffy—" started Giles.

"No," said Buffy, turning on her Watcher. "Every time I go out there, it's destiny this and fate that. But you know what? I'm choosing to do this. And you can't stop me."

And with that, Buffy left the library.

-000-

Buffy had long since discovered that, if there was a common theme to her life, it was stinky sewer tunnels. She always wound up prowling around in stinky sewer tunnels. Really, it was only a matter of time before her olfactory senses shut down permanently, in protest.

If she lived that long.

She turned the final corner and there, in front of her, was… well, okay, it was something. Something Buffy didn't really know if she'd ever be able to explain to her friends. Kind of like watching a 3-D movie without the glasses. It was… both the Hellmouth, and not the Hellmouth. At the same time. Buffy could see the flickering of potential realities — one in which the Hellmouth was wide open, displaying the depths of hell in front of her, one in which it was only open a hair, one in which it existed as a closed potential, and another in which the breach had been sealed entirely. Buffy glanced down at her watch. Seven minutes left.

Okay. Step one. There was a bomb somewhere down here. She had to find it. Buffy thought for a moment. Okay, so if this bomb was going to create the Hellmouth she was seeing, then, naturally, it had to be located at the center of the Hellmouth. Buffy took a tentative step forward, into the flickering swirl of potential timelines in front of her. A part of her could feel the fires of hell burning against her skin, another part could feel the tickling sensation of mystical energy. She closed her eyes, and focused on her Slayer senses. They, at least, were calm. Grounding. When she opened her eyes, the swirl of timelines was gone, all the phantom sensations were gone, and instead, in front of her, there was nothing but a small, metallic, bleeping ball thing, which sported a circle of green lights around its circumference.

Out of the corner of her eye, Buffy thought she could see movement. She turned, but there was nothing there. Nothing she could see with her eyes, at any rate. Her Slayer senses told her differently. They detected something lurking near her. Something she felt like she should recognize. Knowing her luck, she'd discover this was some sort of hidden vampire nest or something. Or was this that shadow creature from the library? Was it getting stronger, waiting for the moment when it could come into this world completely?

Buffy glanced down at her watch. Five minutes left. She had to hurry. She brought out the metal tube that the Doctor had called a Sonic Screwdriver, and pointed it at the bomb, hitting the button. At first, nothing happened. The light on the end of the screwdriver lit up blue, the screwdriver buzzed in her hand, but the bomb appeared unchanged. Buffy was still trying to think of something else, when she noticed a green light around the bomb's circumference go out.

Oh. So that was how it worked.

Apparently, this screwdriver thingy was taking the bomb apart piece by piece inside. As it got to the next section it was dismantling, another light would flicker out. Buffy felt the potential timelines shifting around her, as the lights were extinguished. The sensations of hellfire on her skin began fading away. The screams of the open Hellmouth quieted. She was doing it! She kept holding down the button. This had to be the easiest apocalypse-aversion ever. No fighting, no crazy villains, no unbeatable odds, just a metal tube, a bunch of green lights, and a sewer.

She was so intent on the screwdriver and the bomb that Buffy didn't notice the vampire until it was almost on top of her.

She spun around, charging at its middle with her head, as she continued to point the screwdriver at the bomb. As Buffy rammed into the vampire, she contorted her body so that she could flip him over her shoulder. He was on his feet immediately. Buffy shifted the screwdriver to her left hand, and reached for a stake. With a glance back, she noticed that the green lights were half extinguished across the center of the bomb. If she didn't keep aiming that screwdriver at the bomb, she'd never finish disarming it in time.

Buffy launched herself into a series of complex acrobatic movements, which allowed her to evade the vampire's attack, mount her own counterattack, and continue pointing the screwdriver at the bomb all at the same time. It was fairly impressive, all things considered, except that the vampire, who didn't have the distraction of disarming a bomb as he fought, was getting the upper hand. Buffy looked over at the bomb again. Only a few green lights left. She could do this.

The vampire, taking advantage of Buffy's distraction, snuck up on her. Buffy tried to duck his blow, but it wound up striking her in the shoulder, throwing her left arm out of place and causing the screwdriver to slip from her hand. Its blue glow cut out, abruptly, as it skidded off into the distance.

"No!" she shouted, as she dove for it. But the vampire was back on her, dragging her away, and she knew she was running out of time. Buffy twisted around and staked the vamp easily (now that she had both hands at her disposal again), then ran off in the direction she'd dropped the screwdriver. She felt around in the dark, feeling the seconds ticking by as if she were part of some enormous clock, the gears and cogs grinding and turning around her. There! She felt the metal tube in her hand, and turned it back towards the bomb.

The screwdriver buzzed, the tip lit up blue, but the green lights stayed on.

Buffy hit the screwdriver against her hand and tried again. Still, nothing. It took her a few seconds to realize that the number of the setting on the screwdriver was no longer 159B. The device now read 152A. She swore. That fall must have knocked the settings out of place. How did this thing work? How did you adjust the settings? She tried twisting something, but it didn't work. She tried pushing another button. Still, nothing. She noticed a knob. There, that was it! She twisted it. 152B, 152C, 153A, 153B, 154… there was a sound coming from the bomb, now, a sort of whirring chirp. Buffy started to feel something in her head, like someone had lit a fire inside her brain and was slowly cooking her to death. 155, 156A, 156B, 157…. The bomb gave a moaning sound, and Buffy felt something grating against her thoughts, something sharp and pointy. She gritted her teeth. 158A, 158B, 159A…

159B.

That was it! That was the one! Buffy pointed the screwdriver at the bomb, and was about to hit the button.

And the bomb went off.


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The aftermath of the previous chapter.

Buffy awoke on the floor of the sewer. She sat up, and stared at the area around her. The Hellmouth was not open. It was there — she could feel that same, mystical tingling that meant it was still around — but it was just like it had always been. Just like she'd remembered it. Closed, but not sealed.

So the most likely timeline had taken its place as the predominant one. Okay, she could live with that. Business as usual.

Buffy got up off the floor. She was a little surprised to find she was unhurt. She'd been right next to the bomb when it exploded. She'd expected to be in little tiny pieces by now. But nope. Completely fine. Everything in working order. How long had she been out? Buffy glanced at her watch, trying to make out the numbers in the gloom. It was too dark. Remembering the screwdriver in her hand, with the blue light at the tip, she pointed it at the watch. The tip lit up blue, and she could see the watch hands going crazy beneath the screwdriver's light, running at mega-speed through the different hours of the day. She shut off the screwdriver. Of course, she should have thought of that. If the screwdriver could disarm a bomb, it could probably mess around with a watch just as easily.

Buffy made her way out of the sewers.

She kept looking for the shadow creature, but she didn't see it. Didn't even sense it. Which didn't really say anything. At the moment, her Slayer senses were — weird. Still sort of scrambled by the bomb blast, she guessed. Okay, so she'd rely on her wit and intuition to detect the vampires and forces of evil. She could do that. Just look for people dressed 20 years out of date. That was usually a good way to suss out the undead.

As Buffy crawled out of the sewers and into an empty street, she noticed that it was morning. Geeze, she'd been out all night? Her mom was going to be majorly pissed about this. First things first, though. She'd left her friends in the library. She'd better go and make sure they were okay. Or that the library was still standing. Now there was a thought. What if the bomb had destroyed the whole school? But she'd been beside the bomb, and it hadn't done anything to her or the area around her. Kind of a weird bomb, she thought.

Maybe she'd disarmed it. Maybe it hadn't gone off at all?

But she'd felt it go off. It had knocked her unconscious. It had created the Hellmouth, turned the potential timeline into the real one. No, the bomb had definitely gone off. It was, apparently, just not the kind of bomb that Buffy was used to.

"An isolated explosion across the fourth dimension…" came Willow's voice.

Buffy swung around, but Willow wasn't there. Now that was weird. Was she developing her own inner Willow? That would certainly be helpful around finals. Buffy looked down at her watch. Its hands were still spinning around at hyperspeed. Wow, she'd frazzled it big time, back in the sewers. She took the watch off her wrist, and dropped it into a nearby trash can. Oh, well. Easy come, easy go. She was about to leave it and go off to the library, when she noticed something. Something very, very weird. The watch was now acting normally again. She picked it up, and its hands started racing. She dropped it, and the hands stilled and slowed.

Buffy had no time to work out why this could be the case, before her attention was dragged away from the watch.

"Buffy!" a voice called out to her, with some urgency. It was a voice that Buffy had never heard before.

Buffy looked up, and found herself watching a completely unfamiliar young girl running towards her. The girl looked about 11 or 12, with sharp blue eyes, a softly rounded face, and long brown hair. She was wearing a purple shirt and a pair of jeans.

"Where've you been? Mom's worried sick," said the girl.

Buffy stared at her. "Who are you?"

The girl seemed slightly affronted by the question. "What do you mean, who am I? What, did my hair color change overnight or something?" She grabbed her hair and examined it.

"No, it's just…" Buffy sighed. "Sorry. It's a small town. I just thought I knew everyone, that's all." She gave the new girl a friendly smile. "I'm Buffy."

The girl focused the bulk of her incredulity back at Buffy. "Uh, yeah, I know," she said, as if this were perfectly obvious to everyone. "Seriously, Buffy, what's with you, today? You're looking at me like you've never seen me before."

"I haven't!" exclaimed Buffy. "I've never seen you before in my life!"

The girl stepped back. "Oh, my God, she's been possessed or something." She turned and ran the other way. "Giles!" she called, as she turned a corner.

Buffy raced after her. "Wait, I'm not—"

Buffy turned the corner, and stopped. There was no one there. No little girl, no Giles, no nothing. She thought she could faintly hear the patter of footsteps in the distance, but it was hard to tell under the roar of the distant traffic. Buffy looked about, but there was no sign of the little girl. Odd. She turned around, and made her way back to the library.

She stopped when she got to the front gate of the school. Okay, definitely odd. Someone must have painted the school dark brown in the middle of the night or something. Either a joke, or some demonic omen. Buffy couldn't work out which. But the school definitely hadn't looked like that yesterday. Buffy ran inside the school, and off towards the library.

The library looked different, too. No longer the round, circular room with the single table in the center, it was now a more open, rectangular room, with a series of tables to the right, and a number of comfy chairs by the stacks. It was also better lit, with large rectangular windows at the far end of the room, filling the place with radiant sunlight. And, weirder still, it was filled with students. There were some loitering around the stacks, although most were hanging out by the tables, talking and making dramatic hand gestures. One boy was even trying to demonstrate skate board tricks in the center of the room. A middle aged woman with auburn hair and a short, stumpy nose asked him to stop, and he trudged off, skateboard beneath his arm. The woman then noticed Buffy, and gave her a friendly smile.

"Oh, why hello, Buffy," she said. "I always knew you'd make it to the library sooner or later. I'm Mrs. Letterhouse, the librarian. Your friend, Willow, has told me so much about you."

Buffy looked around, feeling a little dazed. "Where… where's Giles?" she asked.

"Where's who?" asked Mrs. Letterhouse.

"Giles, Rupert Giles," said Buffy. "The librarian. He was supposed to be waiting for me."

"No Rupert Giles here, love," said Mrs. Letterhouse. Her pleasant voice seemed to be changing in pitch as she got closer to Buffy, about a tritone lower, Buffy thought. And the librarian's hair was growing in length with every step, stretching down the librarian's back. With another step, Buffy realized it was now stuck up in a bun. Buffy backed away. This woman was… a demon or something. That had to be it. And she'd done something to Willow. And Giles. But Willow would definitely know what to do about it.

"Where's Willow?" asked Buffy.

"You just missed her, love," said Mrs. Letterhouse. "She left maybe a minute ago. If you run, you might still catch her."

Buffy ran out of the library, and down the hall.

She was a little surprised to see so many people at the school. She'd thought that it had been early morning, judging by the feel in the air when she'd emerged from the sewers, and by the little girl who would surely have been in school if it had been later in the day. Plus, the rush hour traffic on her way there. Yes, it had definitely been morning a few minutes ago. But as she walked down the hall, Buffy could see kids eating lunches, hanging out, teachers rushing through the hall to make those last few Xeroxes before the lunch break ended.

And there, just at the edges of her vision, Buffy thought she could see something. Something that wasn't quite there, something she thought she should recognize. Buffy turned. It was gone. Okay. So the shadow demon thing was still here. Or was that just something like this morning, when she'd heard Willow's voice? Was all of this related, somehow, all this popping in and out of reality stuff?

Buffy was so deep in thought, that she almost didn't notice when she collided with Principal Bob Flutie.

"Oh, sorry about that, Buffy," said Principal Flutie, readjusting his tie and suit jacket. "I didn't see you."

Buffy stared at him, open mouthed. "You!" she shouted. "You… you died!"

Flutie looked down at himself, slightly perplexed. "Sorry, what?"

"You were eaten by possessed students," said Buffy. "I remember! You should be dead!" A sudden terrible thought came to her. "You're not a vampire, are you? No, wait. You're a vampire, and Mrs. Letterhouse or whatever her name was brought you back and now you're…"

"Buffy, what are you talking about?" asked Principal Flutie. "There's no Mrs. Letterhouse here, and there are certainly no such things as vampires. Seriously, what…"

Buffy watched as the man in front of her morphed, bit by bit, into a far shorter, more mousy-looking man, with a receding hairline and a higher-pitched voice. Principal Snyder, Buffy realized.

"…are you children coming to, with your noise and your daydreams and your gameboys and your MTV?" said Principal Snyder. "Trouble, that's all you are. Trouble, the lot of you. And you, Miss Summers. Shouldn't you be in class?"

"But it's…" Buffy looked around. The crowds of kids had gone. The classrooms were back in use. Lunch had ended. She looked back at Principal Snyder. "What the hell is going on?" she shouted.

"What's going on, young lady, is that you are getting another mark on your permanent record," said Snyder, as he grabbed her by the arm and yanked her towards a classroom. "Now, do yourself a favor and try to keep a—"

The grip suddenly vanished, along with the voice. Buffy looked over. Principal Snyder was gone. So were all the students. The school was empty, abandoned. A janitor was picking up trash down the hall.

Okay, if this was Mrs. Letterhouse causing all this craziness, then Buffy had to stop her. She knew how to do this. Find Mrs. Letterhouse, take her out, and things should go back to normal. Right. Good plan. Buffy ran back into the library, but it looked different than it had a few minutes ago. It was back to its circular shape, but the bookcases were arranged differently. Mrs. Letterhouse was gone. Instead, there was a crabby-looking old man, who was smoking a cigarette.

"We're closed," said the old man.

"Have you seen a lady, with auburn hair and…" Buffy stopped. She noticed the clock on the wall above the old man's head. It was spinning around, just the same way her watch had been, before.

"I got no clue who you're talking about," said the old man, who was now holding a pencil instead of a cigarette. "We're closed, kid. Beat it."

Buffy backed out of the library. Okay. Weird. There was definitely something going on, but she wasn't sure what. And the hallway looked different from last time, too. The floor was green, now. The lockers were black. And there was a patter of footsteps…

"There you are," said a voice from behind Buffy.

Buffy spun around, to find the little girl, again, coming towards her.

"You again!" Buffy said.

"Of course me again," said the little girl. "You didn't come home last night. You didn't come home after school. Mom's about ready to call the police, you know."

"Okay, seriously, who are you, why are you following me, what's going on, and…" Buffy trailed off. "Hang on. Mom. You said Mom. Not your mom. Just Mom."

"Well, she's my mom, too," said the girl.

Buffy stared at her. "Who are you?" she cried.

"Dawn," said the girl, incredulously. "Dawn Summers? Your sister?"

"I… I don't have a sister," said Buffy.

Dawn gave an exasperated huff. "Fine, don't come home," she said, and turned around.

"No, wait!" said Buffy. The girl, Dawn, turned back. Buffy took a shaky breath. "What… where's Giles?"

"Who?" asked Dawn.

"Giles. Rupert Giles," said Buffy. "You called for him a few minutes ago. You know, when it was morning."

"No, I didn't," said Dawn.

"Yeah, you did!" insisted Buffy. "Outside, remember? You said I was possessed and then you called for Giles."

"I called for Xander," said Dawn. "He's been looking for you, too."

"Where is he?" asked Buffy. "Where's Willow?"

Dawn went very quiet. "Willow Rosenberg?" she asked.

"Yes, Willow Rosenberg," said Buffy. "You know Willow, right?"

"Buffy, you staked her last week," said Dawn.

Buffy stared at her not-sister. "No…"

"Yeah," said Dawn, sympathetically. "Don't you remember?"

Buffy ran her fingers through her hair. "Okay, okay, okay," she said, trying to calm herself down. "Willow's dead. Giles never existed. The school's brown, not beige, and I have a sister. But Xander's still around." She turned back to her maybe-sister. "Where's Xander?"

"Probably at his house," said Dawn. "It is ten at night, after all."

"It's what?" asked Buffy. She looked to her right, through the door of an empty classroom — now closed, and locked — and saw that it was, indeed, night outside. She looked back, but Dawn had disappeared.

She heard the sound of footsteps nearby. No, not quite footsteps. It was more like the brushing of feet against the floor, as if they were the footsteps of something not quite there. Buffy thought she could see something out of the corner of her eye, again. She didn't even want to look, this time. She already knew what to expect. She took a deep breath, and then raced out of the school, forcing the doors open. She burst outside, into the cold night air. She stopped, as she saw Angel standing not ten feet in front of her.

"Oh, no," breathed Buffy. She knew what to expect. Everyone else and everything else had been changing since the bomb went off. She had already witnessed the way that Angel changed, last year. Going all soulless and evil and stuff. Buffy felt her heart sink. She so didn't want to go through this again. She reached for the stake in her pocket, but there wasn't one. None of her weapons were in place, anymore. The only items she had with her were the Doctor's screwdriver thing and… that key. What was that key for, anyways?

"I take it that means you've also noticed what's happening?" Angel asked. "Fifteen minutes ago, it was morning. Now, it's night."

"You… you noticed?" asked Buffy. She stepped forward, tentatively. "Angel, is that still you?"

"It's still me," said Angel. He didn't look at her like she was crazy, nor was he unsettled by her question. He seemed to be expecting it. "I'm still the same. It's everything around me that's changing. Or actually, everything around you. The closer I get to you, the more things change."

Buffy stopped in her tracks. It was her. It wasn't the bomb. It was her. She backed up a few steps. "Angel, you'd better stay away from me," said Buffy.

"If I was going to go back to the way I was before, I think I would have by now," said Angel. He looked up at the sky. "But we'd better get inside. I don't know how much longer we have until the sun rises again."

"No, wait," said Buffy. "We've got to find Xander. He can help us."

"Xander can't help you," said Angel. "The world is changing around you, Buffy. Everyone's changing. Time isn't holding steady. And…" He trailed off, staring past her. "Buffy," he said, softly. "There's something coming out of the school."

Buffy turned, and saw a shadowy mist seeping out from the doorway. It was rippling towards her, maliciously. How do you fight smoke?

She looked back at Angel. He was still there. He hadn't disappeared. That was a relief.

"What do we do?" she asked.

"Run!" shouted Dawn's voice, as a small hand grabbed Buffy's and pulled her forward.

Buffy was so completely taken aback by Dawn's reappearance, that she let herself be led as the trio high-tailed it out of there. Buffy thought, at first, that Dawn was leading her home, but they missed the turnoff for home, and instead wound up running, full pelt, towards the cemetery.

"The cemetery?!" Buffy exclaimed.

"It's the safest place," said Dawn.

"What?" cried Buffy. "How so?"

"Left pocket," said Dawn, as she faded out of existence again.

Buffy stuffed her hand into her pocket, and took out the two items she'd stored there. The Doctor's sonic screwdriver, and… a small, Yale key on a string. The key was glowing.

She looked up at Angel. "This wasn't glowing before," she said, showing him the key.

Angel flinched away from the key, as if the glow stung him. Buffy quickly closed her hand around it.

"That was the Doctor's, wasn't it?" Angel asked.

"Yeah," said Buffy.

Angel sighed. "Figures," he said. "That'd be why I've still got a soul. After all, the Doctor's the reason—"

Angel's eyes suddenly went wide, and he stumbled, his body bursting apart into ash. A wooden stake dropped to the ground, and Buffy found herself face to face with the smoke creature. It was now shaped like a medium sized man with floppy hair, who appeared to be wearing a vest and sweater outfit. He had a malicious smile on his face.

"Oops," he said. British accent, Buffy realized. Closer to Giles than to the Doctor, but with a deeper voice, a slightly scratchy voice that seemed to crawl through the night air and slither around Buffy.

"You… you killed him," said Buffy.

"Vermin," said the shadow creature. "The lot of them. Let one vampire loose, and they'll expand across the universe."

The sun began to rise, illuminating the shadow creature before her. He gave a cruel smile. "There goes Xander," he commented. "Oh, killed in a car crash five years ago. A sticky end. But I suppose that means it's only a matter of time before the inevitable happens." And he looked at Buffy, with a cold, calculating expression, as the graveyard shifted around her.

Buffy looked to her right, and there, beside her, was a gravestone for Xander Harris. She looked up. The surrounding skyline looked completely different from how she remembered, and even now, it wouldn't stay still. Buildings popped into and out of existence, the town flickered into and out of being around her, and the graveyard kept contorting nearby.

Buffy clenched her fist around the key. This was a dream. It had to be a dream. But she wasn't waking up. Why wasn't she waking up. She could feel the edges of the key cutting into her flesh. It was real. This whole thing was real. Giles, Xander, Willow, Angel… they really were all dead. All gone. And there were more gravestones all the time, people Buffy knew. She heard her heart thumping loudly in her ears.

Alone. The entire town completely silent around her. Alone in a world of changing landscapes and constantly shifting time streams. Time was being rewritten around her, and was this what the Doctor had said that only he could fix? Was this what he'd been talking about?

Buffy understood monsters. She understood vampires. She understood witches and spells and apocalypses. But this — this she didn't understand. So she did the only thing she could think of.

She ran.

Buffy felt the ground thudding beneath her feet as she sprinted through the cemetery. The key in her hand was getting warm, glowing brighter and brighter. And suddenly, she knew what Dawn had meant. She knew why the Doctor had given her that key. And she knew what it unlocked.

As she approached the phone box, she could feel the shadow creature getting ever closer. She thrust the key into the lock, jerked the door open, and flung herself inside. She slammed the door behind her, locking it, key still in hand. Then her brain registered what she was looking at.

No. Way.

Buffy was facing a large, open, circular room, with gentle lights imbedded into the walls, and grated floors leading up to a mushroom shaped object in the center. The mushroom shaped object appeared to have a tall, green glass tube sticking out the top, stretching up towards the ceiling. But that wasn't what was crazy about the room.

The room was huge. No, seriously. Huge! She'd run inside a little phone box, and found herself somewhere completely different. Okay, think Buffy. What's bigger on the inside than the outside? A dimensional portal? But it didn't really feel like she'd just walked through a dimensional portal. Maybe it was magic. Or maybe some sort of weird case where the laws of physics didn't work properly (not that Buffy really knew what the laws of physics were in the first place). She remembered what Giles' book had said about Time Lords, that they were known for their advanced level of technology. Okay, so maybe the laws of physics (whatever they were) were working fine. Maybe this was just something that hadn't been discovered, yet. After all, the Doctor was a time traveler. This sort of thing might be commonplace in the future. Trying to make sense of it now would be like trying to make sense of a walkman in the Middle Ages. Better to just go with it, and pretend this sort of thing was normal.

The room, as if sensing her panic, was vibrating with a soft, soothing hum, something that made Buffy relax. She was safe in here. At least she was safe.

A few seconds later, Buffy stopped relaxing.

A cold chill went through Buffy's spine, and she stepped away from the doors. She backed up, as the smoke drifted into the room, coalescing on the other side of the wooden door. Buffy cursed. She should have known this wouldn't work. Now she'd just trapped herself inside with the thing. She looked around for some sort of weapon, but there was nothing even remotely weapon-like in the room. Okay, seriously, the Doctor didn't have any weapons? None?

Buffy pulled out the most weapon-looking thing she could think of — the screwdriver — and pointed it at the creature, gathering up her courage. "Glad you could join me," she said. "What kept you?"

The creature now seemed slightly more solid, as it stepped towards her. "Buffy Summers," he said, in his deep, gravelly voice. "I think it's time you met your destiny."

"Been there, done that, bought the t-shirt," said Buffy. She was thinking fast. If the creature was getting more solid, it meant that she could attack it. She was good at attacking things. That was something she could definitely do. So she waited as it approached, trying to gage the right moment to strike.

"You know you can't hide in here forever," said the creature. "Eventually, you'll have to come out. After all, I guarantee I can —"

The shadow creature suddenly doubled up, clutching his head. He cried out. Buffy thought she could hear the background hum of the room grow louder, as the low-pitched, gravelly cry turned suddenly higher, lighter, less ominous.

"There!" said the shadow creature, in the new, higher-pitched, friendlier voice (still with the English accent, though — really, what was it with English accents and vampire-demons?). He looked up at Buffy, and gave her a nice smile. "Terribly sorry about that. Having a slight bit of trouble. Buffy, was it?"

Buffy nodded, still a little too stunned to speak.

"Pleased to meet you, Buffy," said the shadow creature. "I'm the Doctor."


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Shadow Doctor gives Buffy a message, and Buffy meets a very flirty and attractive new guy.

Buffy blinked. "What?"

The shadow-Doctor cringed, giving a small cry. "No time!" he said. "The Tardis is helping me to stay out here, but his mind is very strong. Pretty soon, he'll figure out how to counteract what I'm doing, and then I'll be locked up again." He raced over to the mushroom thing in the center, and started pushing buttons and pulling levers. A wheezing, groaning noise filled the room, and something in the green tube at the center began bobbing up and down, rhythmically. The room lurched, and if Buffy hadn't been training for as long as she had, she probably would have toppled over. But she managed to keep her balance. The shadow-Doctor didn't topple over, either. He was running around the mushroom-thing, continuing to do whatever it was he was doing, and chatting. "He set a trap, you see. Trying to create a temporal instability that would allow him to penetrate this reality. I tried to fight him, but, well, we're not as strong as we were a few centuries ago. I got locked away, somewhere deep inside this mind. I've been trying to reassert control ever since."

"You… you're the Doctor?" Buffy asked.

"Oh," said the shadow-Doctor, looking up at her across the mushroom thing. "Yes, that's right. You've met the other one. Tall fellow, lanky, wears a funny pinstripe suit and speaks with a rather common British accent?"

"He definitely was tall with a pinstripe suit," said Buffy.

"Ah, yes," said the shadow-Doctor, thoughtfully. "How to explain?" He paused a moment, in thought. "Same person, different points on the timeline. He used to be me, I'm going to be him. That sort of thing." The shadow-Doctor's vibrancy faded, as he gained a suddenly sorrowful look. "Or at least, that's how it was supposed to happen. If I'd still been all in one piece. It all went a bit wrong, I'm afraid, in Amsterdam." He shook off his melancholic mood, and gave Buffy a cheerful grin. "Still, I suppose Hedrin would be suitably mollified, if he were still alive."

"Who-drin?" asked Buffy.

"Long story," said the shadow-Doctor. "Dusty old Time Lord. You wouldn't have heard of him. Nasty sort, came to a sticky end when—"

The shadow-Doctor suddenly cried out, his voice wavering between the lighter, friendlier voice, and the menacing, gravelly one. He clutched his head, gritted his teeth. When he looked up, there was sudden desperation on his face. The room (or whatever it really was, Buffy thought, since rooms usually didn't shake or make noises like this) had suddenly gone still and quiet with a final thump. The tube at the center stopped moving.

"Can't keep him back much longer," said the shadow-Doctor, through gritted teeth. He pointed to the doors. "Out there. Find someone. The fixed point in time. He can stabilize you. He knows the Doctor. Tell the Doctor… something's trying to break through. Something worse. Tell him…" the shadow Doctor took in a pained gasp of air, before continuing. "Tell him Toby is coming."

"Toby?" asked Buffy. "Okay, really, I gotta get these demons a better naming dictionary. Toby? What kind of self-respecting demon calls himself Toby?"

There was another cry from the shadow-Doctor. And for a second, Buffy heard the gravelly voice snarling, "get out of my head, Doctor!" Then there was another shout, and the shadow-Doctor looked up at her. Even though he was still mostly shadow, Buffy thought she could see pain and desperation in those eyes. He pointed to the doors. "Go, now!" he shouted. "I can't stay out here much longer. Leave! Find the fixed point! You'll know him, because he'll… feel… wrong…"

And then he screamed, really screamed, the way that Buffy never wanted to hear anyone scream (but wound up hearing far too often in her line of work). Buffy decided there was nothing she could do for him, and ran out the door.

The moment she hit daylight, she stumbled. She could hear traffic in the background, and as she looked around, she realized that she was somewhere else. Not in the same way she'd been somewhere else in Sunnydale, back when it had been going crazy. No, she was somewhere stable, somewhere that wasn't changing. She watched as a red double-decker bus rushed by. On the wrong side of the road. Okay, so England. She was in England.

There was a rush of footsteps behind her. At first, she thought it was the shadow creature again, but as she whirled around, she found herself face-to-face with a handsome-looking man with twinkling blue eyes and a dashing smile. He was wearing a World War II military greatcoat, across a blue, collared shirt and black pants. He also gave Buffy a serious headache. Yeah, if she thought her Slayer senses had gone nutsy over the Doctor, she didn't know what nutsy meant. This guy was like a headache wrapped in a migraine wrapped in an unnerving sense of there-ness. Sort of… wrong.

Oh, so this was the guy she was supposed to be looking for.

The guy stopped, looking her up and down. He gave her a charming smile. "Well, hello there," he said, in a flirty tone of voice (American accent, Buffy noted mildly). His entire being radiated charm and sex appeal. He was like… a Xander that actually worked. The man pointed at her. "If you're the Doctor, I like the upgrade."

"What?" said Buffy. "No, I'm not…"

She caught movement out of the corner of her eye, and turned, noticing the thick black smoke pouring out from the door of the phone box. She stepped back. Not again. "Oh, my God," she breathed. "The Doctor!" She wanted to say something more than this, but she was trying to express way too many things at once without really being sure of what she wanted to express anyways. She just hoped this handsome stranger got the message.

The stranger's charm and flirtiness melted into sudden seriousness as Buffy said the words. He hesitated. "What does he look like?" asked the stranger.

"I don't know! Weird! Shadowy!" cried Buffy. The smoke was really pouring out, now. Buffy braced herself for a fight. Assuming there was enough there to fight.

The stranger was looking more and more worried by the second. He looked like he wanted to dart into the phone booth, but was holding himself back. "Tall, skinny, spiky brown hair, pinstripe suit?" asked the stranger.

Buffy wasn't really sure how to answer this, but she supposed she didn't have to. Something on her face must have told the stranger that she recognized the description, because he darted forward, opened the doors, and rushed inside the phone booth. Smoke poured out from the doors, but it was only then that Buffy noticed it wasn't the malicious smoke from before. This was actual smoke smoke.

The stranger came outside, coughing violently. "I don't see him," said the stranger. "He must have ducked into the back. Might take us days to find him in there. What were…?" The stranger stopped suddenly, just staring at Buffy. "Hang on," he said. "I know you."

Buffy sighed. Here it came. Now he was going to start calling her Elizabeth, and telling her about things she hadn't done. "Do you?" she asked in a dull, flat tone.

"Yeah," said the guy, giving her another charming smile. "You're Buffy the Vampire Slayer."

Buffy stared at him. She almost wasn't sure what to say. "You… you know I'm Buffy?"

The stranger gave her a wink. "Not to brag or anything, but I've sort of been a vampire hunter myself in the past. Best way to find a Time Lord, I thought. After all, vampires and Time Lords don't really get along. I fought some of the nastiest, most despicable vampires you could imagine over the past hundred and fifty years. You better believe I know who the most recent Slayer is."

Buffy swallowed. Right. Nastiest, most despicable vampires. She was pretty sure she knew who that referred to. "A hundred and fifty years?" she asked, instead.

The man's ease dropped, and there was something very lonely in his eyes. "Yeah," he said. "Sort of inexplicably immortal. Not a lot I know about that. Trust me, you're not the first to take an interest." He dashed her a winning smile, and offered his hand. "Captain Jack Harkness, at your service," he said.

Buffy took the hand. It felt human. Distinctly, decidedly human. Even her Slayer senses were telling her that he was human. Wrong, but human. Buffy had no idea what to do about that. But if she was in England, she could find the Doctor, and figure out what the hell was wrong with her. And Jack — maybe he could help her.

"You know the Doctor, right?" asked Buffy.

"Hot guy in a suit," said Jack. "Course I do."

"I need to find him," said Buffy. "He told me he could fix things, and I thought… I was sure I could do it all by myself, but instead I just messed everything up. I need him to help me make things okay again."

Jack gestured at the phone booth. "Isn't he…?"

"No," said Buffy. "I mean, maybe. Possibly. But I don’t think so? It's just, okay, it's really, really confusing, and I have no idea what's going on, but I think I need the Doctor to fix it, and I don't know why or whether or not—"

Jack cut her off. "Woah, woah, woah, slow down," he said. "What happened to the Doctor?"

"He's at the Watchers Council," said Buffy. "And it's my fault. I thought I could deal with this temporal explosive whatever under the library, but I couldn't, and it went off, and all the clocks started going screwy."

"This temporal explosive whatever," said Jack. "Wouldn't happen to be small, spherical, about this big," Jack indicated the size with his hands, "made of enforced ionized conlicramiun with a string of green lights around the middle?"

"Possibly," said Buffy, who had no idea what ionized conlicranium was, much less what it would look like.

Jack winced. "A Zenuranium-12 Temporal Explosive Device," he said. "That's a bad one. No wonder the Doctor was concerned."

"The Doctor kept telling us that he was the only one who could fix it," said Buffy. "And no one believed him except for me, but everyone thought I'd been bewitched or something, so no one would let him out to disarm the—"

"Let him out of where?"

Buffy fidgeted with the hem of her t-shirt. "We sort of… locked him up a little."

Jack gave her a half-smile. "Typical. Bet he escaped in about five minutes."

"No, he didn't," said Buffy. "I mean, he managed to get out of the Duct Tape, but…" She noticed the inquiring look on Jack's face. "We restrained him with Duct Tape," Buffy explained. "So that he wouldn't take off the gag."

"This keeps getting better and better," said Jack. "Gag?"

"It's just… there was this book," said Buffy, "and it said some stuff, I don't know, about a magic voice and—"

"Buffy," said Jack. "I think you and I need to talk."


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Doctor at the Watcher's Council.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, I, for one, really love this section. I think it gets to the heart of why the Doctor objects to the Watchers Council (and that bit about the timeless war -- when I put that in, I was like, "Yes! You've hit on something here, Shoshi!"). In order to write this scene, I made a list of all the reasons the Doctor disapproves of the Watchers Council. I've come up with 10 so far. Might add in more, over time, if I think of them.
> 
> The prophecies thing I absolutely love. I came up with that back at the beginning. It makes me laugh every time I think of it. Invasion of the Sparkly Vampires. Tee hee!
> 
> About the Key. Yeah, I vaguely recall something about how the Watchers Council didn't know about the Key later. But in both the Buffyverse and the Whoverse, there are so many people with memory altering drugs that I've decided this was okay.
> 
> I'm tying the Key to Time in this story into the one from _Time Walker_ , a story I put up on FF.net. To understand what the Key to Time really is doing, where it is, why the Doctor put it there, and what Jack Harkness has to do with all this, you'll have to read _Time Walker_. Don't worry -- I guarantee it's quite good, although the prologue is a little weird (the rest of the story isn't like that). If you don't want to read _Time Walker_ , you should still be able to follow this story, but you might have to think a bit harder.
> 
> Anyways, here's the Doctor at the Watchers Council. Enjoy!

The Doctor was led through the Watchers Council with an armed escort, all wearing ear plugs. His hands had been bound behind his back, which was the only reason the armed escort were still wearing their earplugs. Otherwise, the Doctor would have pulled them out long ago.

"Good to know you believe your own propaganda," the Doctor shouted at them.

The armed escort all began humming to themselves, as if trying to drown out his voice. Right. That's what Elizabeth had said, back in California. That he had a 'magical voice' that could bewitch people. And of course the Watchers would claim he had a magic voice. Because how else would you explain to kids you were trying to brainwash into being unstoppable killing machines that sometimes, a conversation was all you needed to stop violence?

As the Doctor entered the main room of the Watchers Council, he found himself presented in front of a large conference table filled with the kinds of humans he'd never, ever select to be in charge of anything. They were all the stuffy, better-than-you types who believed they could and should control Earth's future, but never did any of the actual work themselves. The Doctor's escort let go of his arms, instead leveling loaded rifles at his head.

He gave the Watchers Council his most winning smile. They weren't wearing earplugs. Well, that was a relief.

"Hello again," he said. "Blimey, must be, what, 500 years since I was here last?" Actually, it was only a few weeks ago for him.

The Watcher at the head of the table turned to the woman beside him, who wore her hair in a tight bun and sported a gray business suit. "Ms. Ackerly, is the incantation prepared?"

"It is, sir," said Ackerly.

"Then you may proceed," said the Head Watcher.

Ackerly opened an old-looking book, and began to chant an incantation. It was in a language the Doctor understood, of course, but he wasn't paying attention to the words. He was a bit more distracted by the feeling of the psionics she was unleashing.

There was a rush of air by the Doctor's ears, as a steady, pulsing throb pounded in his head. The psionic power was ballooning around him, sealing him into a little tiny bubble, containing him, trapping him. It didn't just push against his body, when he tried to move against it — the barrier pushed against his mind as well. The Doctor gritted his teeth. He really hated this sort of thing. Humans, most of whom were telepathically blind, couldn't feel what was actually happening when they dabbled in 'magic' and 'witchcraft'. The Doctor could feel the steady channeling of psionic energy as it used the morphic field of the Earth as an amplification module, could understand all the ways in which the seemingly pointless words and gestures unlocked possibilities that, at this point in history, most humans believed only occurred in quantum physics. The Doctor forced a grin onto his face, and tried to make it seem as if the psionics didn't bother him in the slightest.

"He is secured," noted Ackerly, finishing her spell and closing the book.

The Head Watcher waved at the Doctor's escort. The escort marched out of the room, securing the doors behind them. The Head Watcher then turned back to the Doctor, and studied the alien carefully. "Now that that's out of the way," the Watcher said, "I believe some introductions are in order. My name is Quentin Travers, head of the Watchers Council. To my right is Lauren Ackerly, and to my left, Peter Schiller. They have been charged with your well-fare and containment."

"My jailers, you mean," said the Doctor. He would have waved, but his hands were still tied. He settled for giving Ackerly and Schiller each a little nod. "I'm the Doctor. Can't say I'm pleased to meet you. Not really a fan of the whole life-long imprisonment thing."

"Your stay here does not have to be uncomfortable," said Travers. "If you were to cooperate with us, the arrangement might prove mutually beneficial."

"Oi, I was perfectly cooperative before," protested the Doctor. "You lot wanted to know the future, I told you the future. You wanted to see my time machine, I showed you my time machine."

"According to the old records, you explained to the Council that you could reveal the secrets of time travel if they allowed you access to your blue box," said Schiller. "When it was provided, you apparently got inside, locked the door, and made the box disappear."

"Might have done that," the Doctor admitted.

"And your prophecies were worse than useless," added Ackerly. "It is fairly clear, for example, that in 1954, the 'Dark Lord Sauron' did not, in fact, 'attempt to take over the world via ring-wearing.' Nor will we ever manage to find a real English boy with a lightning bolt scar on his forehead. And I somehow doubt that any so-called 'invasion of the sparkly vampires' will actually occur in 2005."

"Yeah, but you got to admit, they were great books," said the Doctor.

"Aside from literary prophecies, a vague threat about Buffy Summers, and your rather dramatic escape, it appears you offered us very little during your last visit," said Travers. "I hope you understand that we will be expecting more from you this time."

"Oh, come off it," said the Doctor. "I know why I'm really here. I know your dirty little secret, and that scares you. What do you tell your Slayers now? Something about Senaya and the heart of a demon? Because, of course, telling them the truth — they might feel a bit upset about that."

"It was… an unfortunate, but necessary evil," said Travers.

The Doctor didn't bother saying what he really felt about the incident. He didn't even want to think about it. He had locked the memory away, somewhere in the deep recesses of his mind where it wouldn't break free to haunt him during his solitary hours. But it did — oh, it always did. And he knew it would for the rest of his lives.

But the Doctor shoved the memory aside. He had better things to yell at this lot about.

"And what about the humans you're killing?" asked the Doctor. "Is that all this is? Just an unfortunate but necessary evil? You've thrown away the lives of countless teenage girls as if they were nothing! Pawns in your chess game!"

"It's hardly fair to say we throw away our Slayer's lives," Ackerly protested. "We give every potential Slayer rigorous training and a strict education. We ensure that they are prepared."

"No," said the Doctor. "You destroy them. You manipulate them, isolate them, tear apart their lives! They're not people in your eyes, oh no. They're your creations. Your tools! Your tin soldiers!"

"We're fighting a war," said Schiller. "You simply don't understand how it's fought."

"Oh, I understand far too well," said the Doctor. "I've fought in a timeless war against purely evil creatures. I know what happens, if you let it go too far. When you spend all your time battling creatures whose sole purpose in life is to kill, to destroy, to exterminate — you become like them. And you — the Watchers Council — you are letting this happen. All of you! I've seen what you've done to your Slayers, over the years. I've watched every one of them die. You immerse them in the worst of the world, encouraging them to be isolated and detached from the best of humanity. You give them no hope, no light, just death and darkness. Violence becomes their only option, their only outlet, their only expression. You are destroying these girls from the inside out!"

"In a war," said Travers, "sacrifices must be made."

"But not by you," said the Doctor. "Oh, no. Never by you lot. _They're_ the ones making the sacrifices! You send young girls into impossible situations, not caring for the consequences. This _isn't_ a war, Quentin. It's institutionalized slaughter!"

"And yet the Slayer is a thoroughly necessary part of this world's defenses," said Travers. "Even you have admitted that in the past. Despite your protests, Doctor, you cannot dispute that our methods work. Over the centuries, we have protected the Earth."

"Protected the Earth?" cried the Doctor. "Let me explain something to you, quite clearly. The only reason your 'methods' have worked, in the past, is because I've ensured they've worked. I've just spent the last few months wandering around, fixing your mistakes! Ducked into the Shadow Proclamation — there are about 50 lawsuits in against you, at the moment, innocent alien creatures that your Slayers killed because you trained them that anything nonhuman is bad — and those are just the creatures who actually bothered to alert the authorities. Fixed that. Then I had to nip back through history to clear up all the villains that your Slayers couldn't stop. Do you know how many times a Slayer's died, leaving whatever malevolent creature she's fighting to ransack the Earth? I lost count after the first hundred. And I'm not even going to get started on what happened to those Slayers who went bad. Don't you understand, Quentin? You're not just playing Russian Roulette with these girls' lives. You're playing Russian Roulette with the world!"

"I'll admit there is possibility for improvement in our system," said Travers. "No one fully understands what this 'Slayer consciousness' is. We know it helps the girls to fight and gives them some useful abilities, but we're certain we haven't unlocked most of its potential. In all honesty, you're the first being we've run across who seems to truly understand it."

"Her," said the Doctor. "Not it. Her. She was a baby. An innocent baby girl, less than a year old." He could feel his voice rising with anger. "She didn't even have a name, yet!"

"I'm not going to say we did the right thing. I'll admit we made some mistakes," said Travers. "But we can't change the past, Doctor. We're just trying to ensure that this planet has a future."

"Then let me go," said the Doctor.

Ackerly and Schiller both looked to Travers, nervously. Travers was unshaken, stone faced and rigid as always.

"You know why we can't let you go," said Travers. "You are a random element, Doctor. We cannot predict your actions."

"I'm not going to destroy your planet, Quentin," said the Doctor. "I'm trying to save it."

"But we have no assurances," said Travers. "We know you've defended this world in the past, and for that we are grateful. But you must understand — this isn't your world. We aren't your people. You have no loyalty to the Earth, no obligation to help us mere humans. We cannot guarantee that you'll continue to stay on our side. And if you ever were to change sides, Doctor, not even the Slayer would be able to stop you. That much is clear."

The Doctor said nothing. The irony. If Travers only knew the truth… but the Doctor didn't want to think about that. He couldn't handle that sort of guilt, not right now.

"However, since you're going to be staying here already," said Ackerly, "and you _have_ defended this world in the past, we thought, perhaps, we could come up with some sort of… arrangement."

"A symbiotic relationship," clarified Schiller. "You help us, and we help you."

"Oh, you help me?" said the Doctor. "How's that, then? You going to give me the comfy manacles? The prison cell with an ocean view?" He looked straight at Travers, pointedly, his eyes dark. "I will not kill for you, Quentin Travers. And I won't help you send young girls to their deaths."

"According to the files, it appears that you often send young girls to their deaths," Travers replied. "Doctor plus companion, usually young, pretty, and female."

"And nearly every one of my companions has lived past their 20th birthday," retorted the Doctor.

"But you give no guarantees," said Ackerly. "How is what we do any better than what you do?"

"I give them a choice," said the Doctor.

"Then let us give you a choice, Doctor," said Travers. "Either you help us, or we'll simply lock you away, somewhere safe, deep in the darkest sections of the Watchers Council. Somewhere you can live out your days in silence and solitude, never speaking to or even seeing another living soul again. The choice is yours."

The Doctor gave them a dark, angry stare. Then, abruptly, he beamed at them, and gave a small shrug. "Okay."

The Watchers all blinked, staring at him in confusion.

"Okay, what?" asked Ackerly.

"Okay as in, okay, fine," said the Doctor. "I'll help. Always happy to help, that's me."

"You're serious?" asked Schiller.

"Oh, yes," said the Doctor. "Completely serious. You need my help, I'm happy to give it. And trust me, after what's just been unleashed on the Earth, you certainly need my help."

Travers turned to Schiller. "Contact Torchwood London. Ask them for a probability count on whether this might be some sort of trick."

The Doctor's countenance faltered. "You work with Torchwood," he muttered.

"We use their resources from time to time," confirmed Travers, noting the Doctor's discomfort with interest. "And they use ours. We find it a mutually beneficial arrangement."

The Doctor said nothing for a moment. He tried to keep his feelings and emotions in check, carefully hidden in the depths of his mind. But again. Torchwood. So soon after Canary Warf. So soon after losing Rose forever. It was nearly enough to make him snap, to make him burn this building to the ground and leave these humans to their fate. But he managed to keep himself in control. Rose wouldn't have wanted him to flip out like that.

"Course you do," said the Doctor, with a practiced ease. "Torchwood. Love to help Torchwood. Love to help anybody, really. Just your handy universe-wide helper, that's me."

"Are you indeed?" asked Travers. He clasped his hands together, and stared hard at the Doctor. Then, in a softer voice, he said, "Well, then, if you're going to be so helpful, we'll start with something easy. Why don't you tell us, Doctor, where you hid the Key?"

The Doctor stiffened at the word. "Sorry?"

"The Key," Travers repeated. "A certain Order of Dagon are pledged to safeguarding the source of a mystical energy that compromises the Key. A source that you stole, apparently, back in the late 70's. So, where is it, Doctor?"

"Oh, you know how it is with keys," said the Doctor. "Always getting lost, popping up every century or so exactly where you least expect them. And sometimes they fall down the back of the settee, or under the car, and you just can't quite reach them. Or — there are those times, when you're running late and you suddenly realize, keys, where are my keys? And the kids are no help, because, well, let's face it, they're kids, and the dog's yapping, and the phone's ringing off the hook…"

Travers cleared his throat loudly to interrupt the Doctor. "We can make you answer," said Travers. "We have spells and incantations to make you tell the truth. And Torchwood has a number of mind probes that we can borrow."

"Nah, you're not going to do that," said the Doctor. "Your psionics wouldn't even dent the mental defenses of a fully grown Time Lord psyche. And as for Torchwood — you wouldn't risk them finding out what your Slayers really are. That'd make them far too interested in you."

Travers' confident air wavered a little. Ackerly, noticing that the Council no longer had the upper hand, jumped in.

"We do hold the fate of Buffy Summers in our hands," said Ackerly. "If you don't cooperate, we could make her life extremely difficult."

"You wouldn't," said the Doctor. He could feel that terrible bite of coldness in his hearts, that terrible feeling he got whenever people tried to threaten his friends. "She's your own Slayer. You wouldn't dare."

But he knew they could. He knew they would. The Watchers Council had done worse things in the past. He'd seen it, these last few months, over and over again. To the Watchers, the Slayer was not a person. She was a weapon — something they could wield and then discard the moment an upgrade arrived. No one who challenged this maxim remained a Watcher for long. The Doctor knew this.

So did Travers.

"Yes, well, in many ways, Buffy is redundant," said Travers. "There are two Slayers, at the moment, and, in the end, we only need one."

"I told you not to harm Elizabeth," said the Doctor. "Back in 1547. I said that if she died because of something you lot forced upon her, I'd destroy your organization completely. And I stand by that. I can tear your Council down piece by piece if I have to. But I am not letting you hurt her."

"I'd say we've given you a choice," said Travers. "You're so big on choices, Doctor. So make this one. Either you tell us where the Key is, or whatever happens to Buffy is on your head."

The Doctor looked at the ground, hiding every emotion or thought he had behind a completely blank mask. "It's gone," he lied. "I destroyed it."

"He's lying," said Schiller. "Nobody would give up that much power."

"Nobody should have that much power," said the Doctor. "Not even me." He took a deep breath, carefully calculated to look as if he were deciding whether or not to reveal another tidbit of information. "It got destroyed during the War. There's nothing left of it, now. Just some residual energy." Another lie.

"The monks seem to believe there's enough energy left to create a substitute," said Travers. "So I advise you, if you're lying, to reconsider. Two Keys, after all, would hardly be good for the universe."

That was a bluff, and the Doctor knew it. The segment of the Key to Time which had resided on Earth for so long did not leave enough of a temporal energy trace to create anything, much less an entire new Key. If the Key to Time _had_ actually been destroyed, they'd never be able to create a replacement segment. But it hadn't been. And the residual energy was certainly enough to attract spare time energy from the real Key.

Worse still, considering where the real Key was hidden and what it was keeping locked up, it would probably be able to attract rather a lot of it. And given that the particular segment that had been hidden on Earth (the Great Seal of Diplose) could instill its users with the power of transformation and transmutation — oh, dear. These monks, if they were clever enough, might actually work out a way to create a replacement segment.

"They won't be able to," said the Doctor. "The Key is gone. No one — not even I — would be able to create a replacement."

Travers had a glint in his eye. "Funny, because that was exactly what we had in mind," he said. "Your assistance on creating the replacement. And, seeing as the original is gone, I'm certain you wouldn't object to trying."

Ah. The Doctor should have been expecting that. Considering what even a single segment of the Key could do, it was only natural that they'd want a replacement. And if there was a replacement segment… if there was any chance that it would destabilize the lock... oh, that would be worse than any of these Watchers could imagine.

"You did say you wanted to help," said Travers. "To prove your loyalty?"

"To show us your worth?" added Ackerly.

"To save your friend?" added Schiller.

The Doctor said nothing. He couldn't do it. Not with something like this. Not with something this important.

Travers and the others looked at each other, and the Doctor detected a spark of good humor in their victory. Was this what they'd really wanted, all along? Not his help, but the chance to prove that they were right? To try to prove to him — as well as to themselves, he suspected — that, in the end, they couldn't really predict where his loyalties would lie?

"I knew he would be uncooperative in the end," said Travers. "The famous Doctor. Stubborn and headstrong as always." He turned to Schiller. "Send in the armed escort and accompany our guest to his new home. See to it that he's as comfortable as he deserves."

Schiller nodded, then went off to obey.

The Doctor could feel himself seething. "Listen to me, Quentin! You have no idea what you're doing! There's something coming through, and I'm the only one who can stop it!"

"And if he talks to you on the way down," said Travers as Schiller reentered the room, "do us a favor and send for Buffy. I'm sure we can find a new situation for her, one which would be more fitting for the circumstances."

"Oh, that would be a mistake," warned the Doctor. "A big mistake. Because I know Elizabeth. I believe in her. Even if you strip her of every power she has, even if you throw the nastiest this universe has to offer at her, she will always, always come out on top. I know. I've seen her do it before." He gave them an icy stare. "And if that doesn't frighten you, it should. It really, really should."

And with that, he felt the psionic field around him drop away, and was confronted by a large number of loaded firearms. Typical day for him, really. He instinctively tried to raise his hands, but of course, they were still tied behind his back. Two muscular men seized his arms, and nearly dragged him from the room. As he left, he could hear Travers calling behind him:

"It's a good thing Buffy works for us, then, not for you."

"Quentin, you don't understand what's about to happen!" shouted the Doctor, but the door closed, and Travers' voice was gone. Schiller was standing beside the Doctor, looking enough like a Torchwood employee that he set the Doctor's teeth on edge. He gave the Doctor a warning glare, as if daring him to speak again.

The Doctor wanted to. He wanted to say something, anything, just so he could be flippant and annoying, but with Elizabeth on the line… well, it wasn't worth it. Besides, Schiller was already putting in a set of earplugs. The Doctor sighed. So this was how they were playing the 'magic voice' bit. Not letting anyone hear him speak, not letting him directly communicate with the outside world. They'd ask him for things, of course. He'd probably see Schiller and Ackerly, perhaps even Travers, but all other communication would be indirect — hand written notes, emails, digital transfers. They couldn't risk that he might find some way to get out. They couldn't risk that he'd tell someone their secret.

And then he realized. The worst possible thing he could ever realize. He _had_ told their secret. He'd told Elizabeth.

Oh, no wonder they'd been threatening her! He'd been thick, so thick, back in Sunnydale. He'd broken down, told her the truth. He'd just wanted someone — anyone — to understand. He'd just wanted her to trust him, to believe in him. And she still hadn't trusted him with Angel's life. (And she was right, oh, if she knew how right she was, what he had nearly done in 1898!)

Would they kill Elizabeth? Force her into some impossible situation when she turned eighteen? (The Doctor had seen so many Slayers die in that test.) Or would they feel she'd make a better bargaining chip alive? Would they confine her here, alongside him, threatening her safety to ensure he gave them whatever they wanted? The Doctor could imagine days stretching into months stretching into years stranded on Earth, creating world-destroying weapons and revealing information that might topple even the mightiest of empires. Elizabeth's next breath always reliant on his proving his own usefulness, on his proving to the Watchers Council that they still needed him. And if the price got too high, if he couldn't do what they'd asked….

No. Stop that. It wasn't ever going to come to that, after all. He wasn't going to be spending months or years in this place. He'd felt the Zenuranium-12 explosive detonate while he'd still been on the helicopter. It had seared across his Time Lord senses, burning at the back of his eyes. If he was right, all hell was about to break loose. The Watchers would certainly ask him for help, then. He'd be able to do what he'd set out to do — he'd be able to save the world.

Then he could worry about how to escape.

The Doctor was led down into the basement, where, it seemed, the Watchers had been preparing for his arrival. If he hadn't known the Watchers Council collaborated with Torchwood, it would have been obvious now. The security system they'd installed down here was very Torchwood, all big and flashy alien gadgets strung together with human ingenuity. It was actually rather brilliant, if you ignored the fact that it was going to be exceedingly difficult to break. Deadlock sealed, too, which would have meant something if the Doctor hadn't given Elizabeth his sonic screwdriver. And it looked like a few of Xander's death-amulets had also been worked into the door seal. Fortunately, all of _these_ ones appeared to be nonfunctional.

No psionic field surrounding the prison, yet. That was promising. Although it was probably only because the Watchers felt they didn't need it. They felt they were more than able to contain him.

(And they were probably right.)

The Doctor's hands were untied, and he was thrown inside the cell, rather indecorously. As he got to his feet, he could hear the deadbolts sliding into place as the door closed behind him. He looked around. It was a small, metallic, dimly lit room with only a wooden shelf attached to the wall to serve as a bed. There looked to be a slide away hatch for a bathroom at the far end, but other than that, he could see nothing else. No windows, no sounds from the outside world. Complete isolation in a barren room, with nothing and no one for company. Well. Good thing he wouldn't be staying for very long, then.

The Doctor walked forward to examine the bathroom alcove, but he stopped. There was something moving out of the corner of his eye. The Doctor turned around, and watched the shadowy form as it rapidly appeared in front of him.

"Should have guessed it was you," said the Doctor. "Did, actually. Hoped you had enough sense left to realize it was a terrible idea."

"Revenge is a powerful motivator, Doctor," said the deep, gravelly voice of the shadow creature. "The moment I heard what you did during the War, I knew I had to come back."

"It wasn't anything you didn't want to do yourself before it, Omega," said the Doctor. "Gallifrey's gone. There's nothing you can do to bring it back."

"Really, Doctor?" asked Omega. "Is that so? Just because you locked the War, wiped it out of history? But for every lock, there is a Key. And I have a suspicion that you know where that Key is."

Yep. This was definitely not going to be pleasant. Not pleasant at all.


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jack explains some things to Buffy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And we're back on Dr. Who territory, so at least here I can be confident that the information is correct. The stuff about the Doctor and vampires is taken from Vampire Science (he really does do this to Joanna Harris!). I thought about putting Joanna into this story, but I guess that'll have to be for another story.
> 
> I have to confess to some lazy writing starting round about this point. But because I'm being lazy, I'll just let you know ahead of time, that way I won't have to completely restructure the scenes and sometimes the story-line in order to not throw you off. Usually, when I say something outright, and you're like, "Wait, why is so and so saying that?" it's intentionally supposed to not feel right (for example, the Doctor calling Buffy "Elizabeth"; a lot of you have commented on that, and I did it on purpose). In the cases I'm mentioning here, I'll just let you know, yeah, they aren't supposed to be clues, they're just lazy writing.
> 
> 1\. Jack really is immortal, and inexplicably so (at this point). No, he doesn't usually tell just anyone the way he told Buffy. I was being lazy.
> 
> 2\. The Tardis really is the Doctor's Time Machine. No, it's not believable that Jack would just blurt this out. Ignore it. I had to get the information in there somehow.
> 
> Basically, the alternative to both of these two little slip-ups are long drawn out scenes that were annoying, so I cut them. Just accept that I'm being lazy, and that these two things are both true, and go with it.
> 
> Anyways, enjoy!

Buffy and Jack wound up at a nearby café, where Buffy was nursing a very large cup of coffee that she definitely needed. Jack was cradling his own coffee in his hands with the experience of one who has relied on coffee for the last hundred years. He was leaning back in his chair with that same cool, relaxed suaveness that he'd had before.

"Okay," said Jack. "From the beginning. What happened?"

And Buffy told him. She started with her first meeting with the Doctor, when she'd seen the alien chatting away with a vampire in the cemetery.

"Oh, yeah, that's him all over," said Jack. "Trying to reason with the undead. Definitely Doctor."

Then Buffy told Jack about the fight. About the Doctor's discovery that Buffy didn't know him. About the book in the library, the next day, calling the Doctor the most evil being in the cosmos. Jack laughed at this.

"I wonder what he did to piss them off," Jack muttered. He tapped his fingers against the table. "That book didn't happen to mention you, did it?"

"Yeah, it did," said Buffy. "It said to make sure he stayed away from me."

Jack sighed. "Guess he worked out that most Slayers don't make it past their eighteenth birthday," said Jack. "He must have marched right into the Watchers Council and told them that if they harmed you, he'd make them pay."

Buffy was a little surprised at this. "What, you think he actually cares what happens to me?" she asked.

"He's the Doctor," said Jack, as if this explained everything.

"And that's supposed to mean something?"

Jack got a far off look in his eyes, a look which spoke of some rather interesting, non-heterosexual feelings towards a particular alien. Okay, TMI.

"There's a reason I've been looking for him for a hundred and fifty years," said Jack. "The things he's done… I mean, not just here on Earth, but everywhere, in every time, it's just… staggering. He does things that are impossible, every day, and he helps others to realize that they can do impossible things, too."

"What, so he, like, saves the world?" asked Buffy. "Because I do that on a fairly regular basis. That's nothing mystical-magical-staggeringly-wonderful in my book."

"Do you know why I stopped hunting vampires?" asked Jack. "Because I found out what the Doctor's been doing to them. He doesn't kill them, Buffy. He's worked out a way to bring them back to life."

Buffy started at this. "He resurrects vampires?" she asked, a little nervously.

Jack laughed. "No, not like that. I mean he makes them human again."

"Oh, you're talking about vampires with souls," said Buffy. She'd thought that Angel was the only one out there like that.

"I'm talking about full scale, they were vampires and undead, now they're mortal humans and alive again," said Jack. "There's this woman you can talk to, in San Francisco. Joanna Harris. She was a vampire for centuries until she met the Doctor. She's now your average out-in-the-sunlight, vegetable-eating human being, working in cancer research."

"I thought that was impossible," said Buffy. "Turning vampires human again."

"It is," said Jack. "Absolutely, one hundred percent impossible. But he's the Doctor." Jack gave a short laugh. "He's built up a bit of a reputation, actually. Vampires are terrified of him. I mean, it's one thing if you kill them. They don't like it, but they're expecting it. But being turned human again? That'll get them shaking in their boots."

"So that's why," said Buffy, remembering the vampire in the cemetery.

"Yeah, well, he's got a few different ways of dealing with them," said Jack. "That one's the most infamous — to the vampires, at least. I don't think the Watchers know anything about it. But there's a whole community of no-longer-vampires in the States who hate the Doctor's guts for turning them human."

"Why would they—? No, never mind. I think I can guess." After all, Buffy knew how hard it was for Angel to deal with all the terrible things he'd done while he was Angelus. She could imagine that, after living as a vampire for centuries, suddenly getting back both your soul and your mortality might be a bit overwhelming. "So, what does the Doctor want with me, then?"

"He's probably trying to protect you," said Jack. "He gets that way. If it was Rose — well, actually, I don't know what he would have done if it was Rose. It would probably have involved the destruction of the Watchers Council, at the very least. And possibly the complete annihilation of every vampire on Earth."

"Who's Rose?" asked Buffy.

"Long story," said Jack. "Look, my point is, if he said he was here to rescue you, he's probably here to rescue you."

"Yeah, except I'm the Slayer," said Buffy. "I don't need rescuing. I rescue other people."

"And I'm immortal," said Jack. "In the end, it doesn't help, when you're saving the world alone with no chance anyone's ever going to notice. Hell, I should get a bonus every time I die, you know that? I'd be the richest man alive."

"Tell me about it," muttered Buffy.

"But when the Doctor's around, somehow, it's all better," said Jack. "Knowing there's someone out there who can rescue the rescuers, who can fix things for us when we fail. Knowing there's someone who cares. It helps."

Buffy looked down at her coffee. "Giles said he was famous for kidnapping people and then changing them. Are they all, I mean, do they all wind up like you? You know, immortal and stuff?"

"Not immortal, no," said Jack. "But changed like me? Yes. Definitely. Every one of them." He looked into the distance, reliving his memories. "I didn't used to be a nice guy, Buffy. I was a con man, a cheat, a swindler, a liar, and a coward. I nearly wiped out the human race back in World War II. Accidentally, mind you," he added quickly. "But, still. Then I met the Doctor. And he believed in me. He made me a better person. He made me want to save the world." He smiled. "And that's what I've been doing, ever since. Saving the world."

"So he is a good guy, then," said Buffy. She'd nearly succeeded in tearing apart the lid on her coffee cup, she was fiddling with it so much.

"The best you'll ever meet," said Jack. "Well, except he has a bit of a guilt complex, tends to insult lesser life forms on a fairly regular basis, attracts enemies like nobody's business, and acts like a lovesick teenager around Rose. But, hey, you gotta take the good with the bad."

"Okay, I definitely screwed up, then," said Buffy. She took a deep breath, and continued with her story.

She told Jack about waiting for the Doctor in the cemetery, about how she hadn't known whether she should trust the Doctor or not. About how rotten she felt for using the Doctor as a hostage in case any other Time Lords found out there were vampires on Earth.

Jack stopped her. "Wait, wait," he said. "Other Time Lords? Did you say other Time Lords?"

"Yeah," said Buffy. She'd been carefully keeping Angel out of her story. She figured that Jack probably knew Angel from the days when he didn't have a soul, and she thought it wouldn't help her to drop his name into the narrative. "My… ex-boyfriend," said Buffy. "He knew something about Time Lords. He said it didn't matter if the Doctor was a good guy or a bad guy, because the moment the other Time Lords heard there were vampires here, the planet was doomed."

Jack blinked at her. "Wow," he said. "You really have been left out of the loop."

"What do you mean?"

"There aren't any other Time Lords," said Jack. "The Doctor's the last one."

Buffy stared at him. Her mind was racing. She could remember what the Doctor had said to her, during their second meeting. About the loneliness. The feeling that there was nowhere you could belong. The feeling that you'd never be like those around you, because you were the only one. The only one in the universe. He'd asked her if she felt like that, and she'd thought… that he'd been talking about the Slayer. That he'd been talking about her. But no. He'd been talking about himself.

"And even if the Time Lords _were_ still around, the Doctor wouldn't tell them about vampires on Earth," said Jack. "He likes Earth. It's his adopted home."

Buffy felt even worse than she had before. She took another sip of her coffee, trying to hide her embarrassment.

"So, you decided to capture the Doctor," prompted Jack.

Buffy told him about her second meeting with the Doctor. About Faith, who had clobbered him across the head. About the library, and the message the Doctor had left them. About the bomb in the sewers, and the vampire who had attacked her.

"That's smart planning, whoever came up with it," said Jack. "The Zen-12's are famous for being tricky to disarm. You have to take them apart piece by piece, and the first thing you undo is the temporal stabilizer field. If you don't finish disabling the bomb in time, you might prevent the worst of the explosion, but the person closest to the bomb will become temporally unstable. Timelines changing around them, that sort of thing."

"So, it was a trap, after all?" asked Buffy.

"At a guess, I'd say it wasn't designed for you," said Jack. "I'd say it was for the Doctor. He's been planet-saving for at least 900 years, now. Imagine all those different decisions changing around him. The effects would span across the universe, across all of time and space."

"So, even though I totally screwed everything up, I sort of did the right thing, in the end," said Buffy. "I mean, if he'd gone in there instead of me, then he'd be temporally unstable, and things would be a whole lot worse."

"If he'd gone in there, he might have been able to disable the bomb in time," Jack pointed out.

Buffy took another sip of her coffee to avoid answering.

"Well, I can guess how the rest of that went," said Jack. "Time not staying steady, timelines shifting all around you, people you loved or knew suddenly popping out of existence." He considered. "Actually, given how many life-threatening situations you Slayers get into on a daily basis, it's sort of amazing that you're still alive."

"Yeah," said Buffy. She frowned. "I guess so."

"So, how'd you come here, then?" asked Jack. "I'm guessing that the Doctor didn't give you a lift, since he got shipped by air-mail."

"This shadow-thing followed me into the phone box—"

"Tardis," corrected Jack. "It's his time machine."

"Tardis, whatever," said Buffy. "And at first the shadow creature started going on about revenge and destiny and all sorts of evilness, and then he sort of shouted and hunched up, you know, like he was in pain, and then there was a different voice, sort of more friendly-sounding — still English, though — and the new voice said that he was the Doctor."

Jack seemed alarmed by this. "Really?"

"Yeah," she said. "He said something about how they were supposed to be the same person, but there was some mix-up in Amsterdam, and now they weren't. But he said it was very important that I find you and find the non-creepy-looking Doctor, and tell him that some guy called Toby is coming." She examined Jack's face for clues, but found none. "I was sort of hoping you'd know what all that meant."

"Nope," said Jack. "But I'll bet the Doctor does." He got up, and offered Buffy a hand. "Come on. Let's go find him."


	13. Chapter 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jack and Buffy arrive at the Watchers Council.

Buffy took the lead, when they arrived at the Watchers Council. They tried knocking, but of course, that got them nowhere. Neither of them really thought it would.  
"You've got the sonic, right?" asked Jack. "That'll open up the door in no time."

"Nah," said Buffy, her hand still on the door knob. "I've got a better way." With a jerk of the knob and a tremendous force, Buffy pulled the door off its hinges.

Jack shrugged. "Works for me," he said, climbing into the building after her.

It wasn't hard to find where the Council members were meeting. Buffy forced open the door and stomped in, her hands crossed in front of her. Around the table were a number of dull-looking people, wearing boring business suits in drab colors. They actually managed to out-Giles Giles, Buffy realized, and that was a pretty scary thought. They clearly recognized her the moment she entered the room, and seemed a little worried, in that subdued, British way.

"All right," said Buffy. "Where is he?"

"Sorry?" asked one of the men around the table. "Where is who, exactly?"

"You know him," said Buffy. "Tall, skinny guy, wears a suit and red chucks. Came in here on a helicopter." She crossed her arms and gave the Watchers a death glare. "The Doctor."

The Watchers all looked at one another, silently conferring with each other. Then, as if rehearsed, they all came out with, "He's at Torchwood."

Buffy remembered Giles mentioning something about Torchwood. An organization that was designed to protect England from — something. Demons? Vampires? Aliens?

Oh, right. That was it.

It was to protect England from the Doctor.

Oh, if he was there, Buffy was sure he must be having loads of fun.

Jack, who had been hanging back, now stepped into the room, flashing his I.D. "Captain Jack Harkness," he said, with that same easy smile on his face, although there was something far colder in his eyes. "Torchwood. And, no. We don't have him. So where is he?"

The Watchers all began to confer with one another in hushed voices. Buffy turned to Jack. The I.D. looked genuine. She gave him a questioning look. "I didn't know you worked for Torchwood."

Jack looked a little sheepish, as he tucked the I.D. back into his coat pocket. "Long story. Just… don't tell the Doctor. He might be a bit upset."

"Well, it's definitely a way to find him," said Buffy.

"Yes, and if I'd had a choice in the matter, I might have considered that," said Jack.

Buffy could sympathize. She knew what it was like to be forced into doing a job you didn't really want to do. She gave Jack a friendly pat on the arm, and he grinned at her, with one of his too-sexy-for-primetime-TV smiles.

The Watchers fell silent, and one of them stepped forward. It was a woman wearing a really badly fitting gray business suit. "Lauren Ackerly," she introduced herself. "And you must be Buffy, is that right?"

"Yeah, Buffy the Slayer," said Buffy.

"Well, Buffy," said Ackerly, as if she were talking to a very small and particularly stupid child, "we think it might be better if you didn't see the Doctor."

"Okay, first, I'm American, not stupid," said Buffy. "And second, what are you doing to him, that you don't want me to see him?"

"Nothing," said Ackerly. "We just think it might encourage him to be more cooperative if he didn't know that you were already here."

Buffy blinked at her. "What?"

Jack leaned over, and whispered into her ear, "I believe that they've been threatening to bring you here, and do all sorts of nasty things to you if the Doctor doesn't do what they want."

Buffy's eyes widened. "You've been threatening me?"

Ackerly looked a little embarrassed by this. She glanced over at Jack. "Well, it does say in the Torchwood files that the best way to get the Doctor to cooperate is to threaten his friends," said Ackerly. "We knew from the records from 1547 that you two were friends, so… it just seemed natural."

Jack grumbled something under his breath about Torchwood London.

Buffy was outraged. "You're supposed to be on my side!" she shouted. "I'm off fighting the forces of darkness for you on a daily basis! What gives you the right to threaten my life?"

"We wouldn't really have done anything to you," said Ackerly. "But the Doctor doesn't need to know that. He's famous for needing a bit of… coercion, when it comes to killing living things. All that morality and whatnot."

"And he's supposed to be the villain, right?" asked Buffy. "You know, the one who doesn't have morals and wants to kill living things?"

"He is a villain," said Ackerly. "We're eliminating a very serious threat to the Earth. With what the Doctor knows, with the amount of knowledge at his disposal, he could destroy the entire world with the click of his fingers. And not even the Slayer would be able to stop him."

"Has the Doctor ever expressed any interest in destroying the world?" asked Buffy.

Ackerly shuffled a little. "Well, no," she admitted. "But he certainly could. There's no denying that."

"And your organization wants nothing more than to eliminate this threat?" asked Jack. "The Doctor is in Torchwood's founding charter, you know. If you don't want him, we could easily take him off your hands."

"Oh, certainly not!" cried Ackerly. She looked between Buffy and Jack, her eyes shining with possibilities. "Just imagine what we could do with that kind of knowledge at our disposal! The Doctor, he knows everything about everything. If we could find some way to bypass this… bizarre and irrational moral code he seems to have…. think of what we might achieve! The Doctor has seen this world, past, present, and future. He knows where to find every legendary item, every mythical object. Even Excalibur! He knows every terrible monster that has threatened this world, and every one that will threaten it in the future."

"This doesn't explain why you feel that your organization could benefit most from his presence," said Jack. "You deal with Slayers, demons, and vampires. We deal with aliens. I believe the Doctor falls under our jurisdiction."

"We were the ones who captured him," said Ackerly. "And we feel we can benefit from his presence just as much as you can. If not more. After all, he's the Angel of Death — he's seen every single Slayer die. He knows every enemy who can destroy a Slayer, he's seen every failure in our training. And he's the only creature we've found so far who completely understands the Slayer consciousness. It has been clear from the beginning that we haven't even tapped the surface of what the Slayer consciousness can achieve. With the Doctor's knowledge at our disposal, combined with his biological engineering abilities, we could finally unleash the full potential of the Slayer. We could keep this planet safe in a way that not even Torchwood would be able to parallel."

"Except the Doctor's not cooperating," said Buffy. "That's why you're threatening me."

"The Doctor doesn't understand, yet," said Ackerly. "This is a war against monsters with no souls. Purely evil creatures who live for nothing but hatred and death and destruction. The Doctor cannot possibly comprehend what it is like to fight in a war like that."

Jack bit his tongue to hold back a retort. Ackerly didn't seem to notice.

"What the Doctor needs to understand is that, if the Slayer wasn't around, so much evil would overtake the world," continued Ackerly. "Sacrifices have to be made. I'm sure that, in the end, he'll realize that his own freedom is a small price to pay for the safety of the Earth."

"So, let me get this straight," said Buffy. "You've been telling people that the Doctor is this evil, power-hungry, world-destroying demon — even though you know he has both a soul and a strict moral code — because you thought he was useful and wanted an excuse to lock him up here for the rest of his life. Oh, and if he won't do what you want, then that's okay, because you can just zip off and get some friends of his, and threaten them to make him cooperate. Have I got this right, yet?"

Ackerly looked quite embarrassed about this frank assessment of the situation, but didn't negate it.

Buffy stared at her, incredulous. "And you don't see a problem with this?" she asked. "You're supposed to be the good guys!"

"We don't like it any more than you do," said Ackerly. "But we have to find some way to force the Doctor to help us."

"Didn't you think of just asking him?" asked Buffy. "He was practically begging us to let him save the world back in Sunnydale. Maybe if you'd been nicer about it, the Doctor would have volunteered."

"We did offer him a chance to do this nicely and politely," said Ackerly. "But he was flippant. Arrogant. Stubborn. In the end, it appears that Torchwood's methods work best. The Doctor only told us the truth today because we threatened to bring you here, and I don't think his confinement would have been nearly so easy if he hadn't been convinced that his every transgression might cost you your life."

Buffy felt a bit sick at those words.

"Giles," she said. "Does he know about any of this? About the Doctor's moral code, about your threatening my life, about the real reason you wanted us to capture the Doctor?"

"We thought it best to omit certain details in Rupert's briefing," said Ackerly, "seeing as he was going to be your Watcher."

"Let me guess. That means you kept in all the bad stuff about the Doctor and left out all the good stuff," said Buffy. "You brainwashed Giles."

"We prefer to think of it as encouraging a preconceived bias," corrected Ackerly. "Brainwashing has a very negative connotation."

"It's not really something I enjoy, either," said Buffy. "But, you know what? I'm going to overlook the fact that you've been brainwashing Giles, and manipulating me, and threatening to torture me. Because I'm nice. But if you don't want major reconstructive surgery in the next few hours, I'd take me and Jack to the Doctor. Pronto."

Ackerly looked nervously at Buffy, then at Jack. Then she swallowed, and gestured for them to follow her.

"We haven't touched him, yet," said Ackerly. "We didn't even want him for anything, at first. We just wanted to make sure we could control where his loyalties lay. But then we thought, since he's going to be here anyways, why not just…?" She trailed off, hesitantly.

"Torture me and get him to tell you stuff?" asked Buffy.

"Have him help us," corrected Ackerly. "He saves this planet all the time. Imagine if he was always here. We could fight the forces of darkness on two fronts, every day."

"And you think your organization is best suited to the task of confining him?" asked Jack. "He is well known for being particularly difficult to contain. I understand that you have bartered for a fair amount of Torchwood technology in the past, but surely, for the good of the Earth, it would be best to make sure he was confined with us."

"He's perfectly secure," said Ackerly. "There's no way he could escape. Trust me, the Doctor will never see the light of day again. We've made sure of that."

"But don't you think—"

"Captain Harkness, I understand why Torchwood is so upset that we insist on holding the Doctor here," said Ackerly. "After all, he is in your founding charter, and we appreciate that. But you should understand what it is we're doing before you attempt to steal him from us. We at the Watchers Council recognize what a useful resource the Doctor is, and seeing as we collaborate with many different organizations, trying to keep the Earth safe, we thought we could help everyone at once. We can keep the Doctor confined here, whilst renting out his services to all the different organizations across the globe. Imagine having such a valuable resource working for Torchwood, UNIT, us, that top secret government project they've got going in the States at the moment, and any other Earth defense groups out there — all at the same time! Surely you must admit, Captain Harkness, that this would be far better for the world than simply handing the Doctor over to Torchwood. In fact, our lawyers should be working on a contract with Torchwood right now. And we'd be more than happy to let you have the TARDIS."

Buffy could see Jack grinding his teeth as Ackerly spoke. When Ackerly glanced back at him, he did his best to wipe the anger off his face and give her a charming smile. "Actually, I'm Torchwood Cardiff," said Jack. "Not London. That contract you're drawing up wouldn't affect me."

"That's no problem," said Ackerly. "We could get the Doctor to do things for your branch as well. It isn't as if there's an end to his usefulness. After all, as far as we know, the Doctor's practically immortal if no one kills him. He's going to be around a long time, so there will be plenty of opportunities for everyone to use him, over the years. And even without the TARDIS thrown in, the price should be quite reasonable. True, we have to cover expenses, but we're working on ways to cut that down. Food, for instance. So far, it's been a day, and he hasn't expressed any hunger whatsoever. It could be we don't even have to feed him. We could cut that cost right out of the equation."

"He needs food," said Jack. "That should be in the files, too."

"But probably not that much," said Ackerly. "My point is, we're planning to cut our expenses on his upkeep to the bone. No luxuries or anything. So we can offer you a pretty good price for him. Think of it as a benevolent gesture from us to all the other world-saving organizations out there. Not even Torchwood would offer such a useful tool for practically nothing. What do you think?"

Buffy knew what she thought. She thought it was disgusting. "You said the Doctor saves the world on a fairly regular basis," said Buffy. "Is that how you treat people who save the world? As useful tools that you can work to death, without caring about their own feelings, wishes, or desires?"

As soon as she said it, she realized how stupid it sounded. Of course that was how they treated people who saved the world. After all, that was how they treated her.

"The Doctor's not human," said Ackerly, as if this was more than enough to justify their agenda. She looked at Jack, as if hoping for confirmation of her philosophy, but Jack was looking about ready to punch someone.

Buffy was gearing more towards Slayer-level fight.

"And that makes it okay?" asked Buffy. "Is that how you see the world? Human good, not human bad? Because let me tell you something. I've met soul-stealing demons that were better than you. And I know a vampire who—"

Buffy stopped herself just in time. Right. No talking about Angel. For all these people knew, Angel was dead. She killed him. And that's all they needed to know.

"I just mean, you shouldn't do that to the Doctor," said Buffy. "You shouldn't use other people the way you used me!"

"We're just trying to save the world," said Ackerly. "The ends justify the means."

Jack clenched his fists, trying to contain his rage. He was clearly trying to keep in line with the whole working-for-Torchwood thing, hoping to con Ackerly into handing the Doctor over, but Buffy was pretty sure he was going to snap if Ackerly kept going on at him like this. She thought that, in Jack's book, Ackerly was probably down there with Angelus in terms of Bad People in the World.

Ackerly had finally led Jack and Buffy into the basement, and through the gloom, Buffy could see the complex, futuristic-looking whatever-it-was boxy thing at the far end. It was bleak enough down here, in the basement, with only scraps of sunlight and a terrible damp chill in the air. She wondered if it was any better inside the cell-type thing where they were keeping the Doctor. She was guessing it wasn't.

Was this what she'd done to the Doctor? Just because he'd mentioned Angel? In one moment, one impulsive, stupid decision, she'd not only let a demon through to destroy the world, she'd condemned the one person who'd wanted to help her stop it to this — imprisoned for eternity, never allowed to see the light of day again. She felt terrible.

Jack actually stopped walking, when he first saw the mechanized door. He took in a sharp breath. "Is that… a Delta Wave Fragmenter?" he asked, pointing to a blue charm that was imbedded in the door.

Ackerly blinked at him. She clearly didn't have any more idea than Buffy what Jack could be talking about. "All the charms and amulets have been specially researched and designed to ward the Doctor away."

Jack turned on her, a completely incredulous look on his face. "Well, yeah!" he exclaimed. "A weapon that could turn the brains of everyone in this complex to mush in ten seconds? That's not a charm. That's a disaster waiting to happen!"

"Well, it's incentive to make sure he doesn't escape," said Ackerly, a little more nervously than before.

"You really are something, lady, you know that?" said Jack. "You're lucky it's broken, or you might have killed off half the population of London by now."

Ackerly headed towards the door, then paused, the key in her hand. "I… I have to take your weapons," said Ackerly. "Stakes included. We have to protect our… investment, and he's known to have many enemies."

"I wasn't planning to hurt him," said Buffy, irritated. "I was planning to make sure you hadn't." She reached into her pocket, but then remembered that all her weapons had disappeared, when the bomb went off. She sighed, and held out her hands. "Doesn't matter. I got nothing anyways."

Ackerly scrutinized her, carefully, then decided she was telling the truth. She turned to Jack, who hesitated before handing over three guns and something Buffy couldn't identify. She raised an eyebrow at Jack.

"I didn't really want the Doctor to see me with them anyways," Jack admitted, in a low voice. "He sort of has this thing about guns." He paused. "You don't have any guns on you, right?"

"Don't use guns," said Buffy. "Pencil works just as well as a broom handle for me."

Jack grinned. "I like you, Buffy," he said.

Ackerly used a fancy-looking bit of equipment to scan them for weapons, then nodded in approval. She put the key in the lock, inputted a few security codes on the side panel, and had a full retina scan done before the door began to unlock.

"Now, we're planning to make it a bit nicer, in the long run," said Ackerly. To Jack, she added, "We are trying to keep costs down, don't worry about that. We do intend to make it financially beneficial for investors." She then turned back to Buffy. "It'll look a bit bare in there at the moment, but keep in mind, we had only a few hours to scrape something together that could hold him. We'll make it more comfortable over time. A year from now, we think he might even grow to like it."

As the door finally creaked open, Buffy was faced with a large, metallic, dimly lit room, sporting nothing but a wooden shelf on her right, a small bathroom at the back, and, in the center, in a battered heap…

Was the Doctor.

"Oh, my God," said Buffy, as she ran inside.

Jack, who noticed the Doctor as well, turned on Ackerly, any vestiges of warmth or cheer left in him gone. "What did you do?" he demanded.

Buffy rolled the Doctor over. He looked like he'd been beaten pretty badly. His skin was covered with bruises and blood, and he didn't seem to be breathing. She checked for a pulse, but she felt nothing. Had his skin always been this cool?

"Jack," said Buffy. "I think he's dead."


	14. Chapter 14

Author's Note:  
First of all, I just want to thank all the people who've left comments on this. I really needed encouragement with this story, and I nearly yanked it off the site a few times, because I thought it was just terrible. Your encouragement really helped. It also helped me to tweak the story. I'm never quite sure what the reader's picking up on, and what the reader hasn't quite worked out yet, and so after reading all your comments, I usually wind up completely rewriting large sections of the story. So thank you, thank you, thank you!

Second, if I gave chapters titles, this would be called "Paradigm Shift." I think that sums it up. And this is for all you people who complained, way back in chapter 2, that Buffy isn't a bad person and how could I do that to her and I just didn't understand because vampires are evil and Buffy is absolutely butt-kickingly right! :-) Glad you felt so strongly, I wanted people to uneasy at that point, and it seems I succeeded. For all you Buffy fans, here's your reward for sticking with the story.

Third, I'd like to give credit where credit is due. The idea that Time Lord regeneration energy = super sunlight is something I borrowed from rosa_acicularis on Teaspoon. I thought it was such a great idea, and it made soooo much sense, what with the vampires and Time Lords being mortal enemies. So thank you, rosa_acicularis!

\--000--

Jack turned away from Ackerly, and rushed into the prison cell. Ackerly, seeing her chance to escape, quickly shut the door and reengaged the locks. Buffy vaguely noticed, although a locked door had never really been that big a problem for her. At the moment, she was a bit more worried about the problem in front of her.

As Jack approached, the Doctor flinched away, automatically. Buffy noted the movement, then looked up at Jack.

"I guess that means he's still alive," she said. "He's just… not breathing and doesn't have a pulse." Her eyes widened, as she got a terrible idea. If the Watchers Council wanted to get rid of her and Jack, and had specifically asked if she had any stakes on her… she checked the Doctor's neck, but it was fine. Undamaged. She breathed a sigh of relief. "Not a vampire."

"It's probably a healing coma," said Jack. He took the Doctor's wrist, and felt for a pulse. He nodded. "Yep, healing coma. All his bodily functions are slowed way down. Helps him heal faster."

"He can do that?"

"Time Lord physiology," said Jack, with a shrug. "It's… unique. Miraculous. The Doctor always says one drop of his blood could change the course of human history."

Buffy tried to arrange the Doctor in a somewhat comfortable position on the floor, watching him carefully. Sure enough, now that she was looking, she could see him breathing. It was a slow, steady breathing, so slow that you might easily have missed it, but still, it was there. She undid his suit jacket, which now sported a fairly large number of rips and tears, and draped it over him as a sort of blanket.

"What did they do to him?" asked Buffy.

Jack shrugged. He was pacing the small room, unable to keep still, his face creased in worry. "Beat him up because he wouldn't cooperate with them, I'd assume. I thought… I mean, after that…" he cringed, "'sales pitch' from Ackerly, I figured they'd be less hands on with him. I didn't think they'd risk nearly killing him like this." He paused in his pacing. "They might be trying to get him to regenerate."

"You mean like grow back body parts?"

"I mean grow back another body," said Jack. "It's something Time Lords do. When one body dies, the entire thing gets replaced. Face, body, personality. It all changes. He's still himself, but he looks and acts a bit different. I don't know how it works, exactly. There are some mentions of it in the UNIT files. But there's this legend that a Time Lord's regeneration is some sort of ultimate biological defense mechanism against vampires. It's supposed to unleash Super Sunlight, or something to that effect. Turns all vampires within a fairly large radius to ash. The Watchers might be trying to work out how to incorporate that into their Slayers."

"Okay, that would actually be pretty useful," said Buffy.

"Heh, you're telling me," said Jack. "I got bitten to death a few times. Didn't enjoy it. Specially not when the vampires keep trying to give you an undead blood cocktail while you're dying."

"And you avoided becoming a vampire, how, exactly?" asked Buffy.

Jack shrugged. "Didn't stick. It's like, every time I come back to life, I revert back to the factory default settings. No vampirism, no injuries, no nothing. Got my brain fried, once. Came back perfectly fine." He laughed, bitterly. "Couldn't kill myself if I tried."

"I don't know," said Buffy. "Sounds like a pretty good deal to me."

Jack looked at her with haunted eyes. "You've got no idea."

Buffy scooted back to lean against the wall, still holding the Doctor's hand in hers. It reassured her that he was still alive, and she really needed to know that he was still alive. This was not, she insisted, because she was getting attached to him. After all, she barely knew him. It was just because she needed him to fix all the stuff she screwed up. And because she'd feel a bit guilty if he died, since she was the reason he was here. And because… okay, it was because she was getting a bit attached to him. She was used to being the one who got chased, the one who was required to make sacrifices for her friends. And here was the Doctor, doing the same thing. For her. She'd nearly killed him the first time they met, she'd tranqed him back in the library, and now she'd accidentally let a demon through to destroy the world, and the Doctor had still let them do this to him, so he could protect her. And, yeah, she could protect herself, but it was nice to know there was someone else in the universe that was like her. Someone who was willing to do the things she did for other people, but for her. Someone who cared about her as a person, and not as a Slayer. Well, to be specific, someone like that who wasn't in danger of flipping out and becoming evil if he had a moment of pure happiness.

How did Angel know the Doctor, anyways? And why did Angel want her to stay away from him? That wasn't Watcher paranoia. No, Angel's fear for her was something else, entirely. He'd spoken like he'd known. Like he'd seen this sort of thing happen before. It made Buffy remember something… some little bit she had nearly forgotten, from that first meeting with the Doctor… when he'd said he had a friend in Sunnydale. A friend who wished she'd never met him. A friend who turned out to be her.

"Before, when we first — I mean, when I first met him," said Buffy, hesitantly, "the Doctor might have mentioned that I — I mean, the other-me, the one from the alternate timeline — she… I don't know what happened, exactly. But in the end, other-me told him that she wished she'd never met him."

"I said that," said Jack. "Right before I died that first time. I said I was better off a coward."

"You think that's why I said it?" asked Buffy.

"Nope," said Jack. "I got another theory."

Buffy looked at him expectantly, but he just grinned. "Well?" she asked.

"That boyfriend of yours," said Jack. "Wouldn't happen to be a bit on the mysterious side, older than he looks, guilt complex the size of a planet, willing to sacrifice everything to save your life?"

Buffy froze. She didn't know what to say to that. Jack saw his confirmation in her expression.

"That's what I thought," said Jack. "Temporal bleed-through."

"Temporal what-now?"

"Oh, it's just a trace of the other timeline," said Jack. "You're attracted to people that are like, well, him." He gestured at the Doctor. "That's who I just described to you."

Buffy dropped the Doctor's hand. "Wait, wait, wait," she said. "You think I was in love with him?"

"You're not the first," said Jack.

Buffy wasn't really sure how to let this sink in. "I was in love with an alien," she muttered. It was sort of… unbelievable. Surreal. How? Why?

Then she remembered that she was still sort of in-love-but-trying-not-to-be with a vampire.

"Don't tell me the Doctor's doing all of this because he loves me," said Buffy. "I mean, it's just… that would be really, really awkward, is all. Because I don't… I mean, I barely even know him."

Jack gave the Doctor a long, sad look, one that hinted at a lot of deeper feelings. "I don't know how he felt about you," said Jack. "But if he's true to form, I'd guess he didn't look at you twice. Not in that way, at any rate. And you, after years of frustration at his obliviousness, figured you could do better and stomped off."

"But all that stuff about wanting to save me and I'm better than that and…." She noticed the look on Jack's face. "He says that to everyone, doesn't he?"

"He has a bit of a messiah complex, sometimes," Jack confessed. "And you gotta admit, finding out that one of his former companions has been forced, against her will, to do some violent job that'll kill her in a year or two — that'd make anyone angry."

Yeah. Jack was right about that. It had certainly made Buffy's mom pretty upset, when she'd found out. "I guess I'm lucky my mom doesn't have a time machine," said Buffy. "She'd probably have kicked the crap out of whoever created the Slayer in the first place."

"Why do you think the Doctor had such a flattering description in that book you read?" asked Jack.

Buffy watched the Doctor's slow breathing. "I wonder what I'd do with a time machine," she mused. Then she laughed, a little hysterically. "I guess I can just ask him. I've already done it. In another timeline."

"You okay?"

"I'm fine," said Buffy, trying not to hyperventilate. "Totally fine. It's just… thinking about other-me. It's kind of mind-blowing with a side of crazy-mental-readjustment. I've been told from age fifteen that this Slayer thing is just what has to happen, because it's my destiny and my fate and I can't change it. But it wasn't supposed to be like this. My entire life changed because something happened somewhere far off in the universe, something that had nothing to do with vampires or demons. Do you have any idea what that means? My life didn't have to be like this. My life shouldn't have been like this."

"You start playing those games with yourself, and you'll drive yourself mad," said Jack. "Sometimes there are things you just can't change. Not even with a time machine. And besides, think about it this way. What's really changed? Other-you saved the world. Current-you saves the world. Other-you still lived in Sunnydale, still fell in love with Mr. Mystery, still got in trouble at school…"

"Other-me got a choice," said Buffy. "Current-me never got a choice in the matter. I had to become the Slayer. I don't find it fun. I don't find it enjoyable. But I have to do it."

"The Doctor says everyone always has a choice," said Jack.

"Yeah, but the Doctor says a lot of things that are total BS," said Buffy. "Like about how vampires can be redeemed and how you have to give demons a chance. I mean, talk about naïve."

Jack stuffed his hands into his coat pockets. There was a solemn look on his face, as he stared down at the Doctor. "He's not naïve," said Jack. "He is stubbornly optimistic. But he's definitely not naïve."

"I fight against vampires on a daily basis," said Buffy. "If you'd seen the things that vampires could do, you wouldn't give them a chance either. Just because he doesn't understand what it is to fight—"

"Buffy, the Doctor was a soldier," said Jack. "He fought in the Last Great Time War — one of the most terrible wars in all of time and space. He watched his entire planet get destroyed. And the Daleks — those were his enemies — they're entirely evil entities genetically engineered to be scientific geniuses who feel nothing but hate and anger. I've faced Daleks, and believe me, they make vampires look like child's play. The Doctor certainly knows what it's like." Jack sighed. "If the Doctor's telling you to give vampires a chance, it's not because he doesn't understand them. It's because he's been there, done that, and already made that mistake."

"Yeah, but the Doctor doesn't have the same sort of responsibility to the world that I…." She looked up at Jack. "You're going to tell me he does, aren't you?"

"We're dealing with onlys, here," said Jack. "You're the only Slayer in the world. He's the only Time Lord in the universe. If you don't protect the world from vampires, the world doesn't get protected. If the Doctor doesn't fix temporal problems across the universe, the problems don't get fixed. The responsibility is the same."

So the Doctor didn't really have a choice either.

Buffy buried her face in her hands.

"You're really not okay, are you?" asked Jack.

"I told you, I'm fine," said Buffy. "One hundred percent, all systems go, fine." She was just having to completely readjust her view of the world, of the universe, of her role in it, of the villains she fought on a daily basis, of the Doctor, and of the Watchers Council. Her moral compass was all screwy, now. Was _she_ the actual villain, working for a group of stuffy English guys who thought of people as means to an end? If they'd lied about the Doctor, how many other things had the Watchers Council lied about? What if — no, that would be terrible — what if she'd thought that she was doing the right thing, but had actually been doing the wrong thing this whole time? She remembered the look on the Doctor's face, when he'd said that there was no goodness left inside of her. Just the thought of it sent shivers down her spine.

"I just wanted to help people," said Buffy. "That's all I ever wanted to do. And I know I killed vampires without giving them a chance, but I'm not magical, I can't turn them human again, and — what are you supposed to do, when a vampire's leaning over some teenage girl, about to sink his teeth into her neck? The vampires and demons I've destroyed — they were killing humans, Jack! Innocent humans who couldn't defend themselves, who never deserved to die like that. If I hadn't stepped in, if I hadn't stopped it, people would be dead. Large numbers of people. And in the end — I can't help myself. When someone's in trouble, when I hear a scream, I don't think. I just — I have to save them. Deep down inside, I know, I have to save their lives. Is that really so bad?"

Jack gave her a friendly smile. "No," he said. "It's not. Not at all. In fact, it's exactly what the Doctor does."

And Buffy'd just locked him up in a cell. With jailers who threatened her life to get him to cooperate. Jailers she worked for.

Buffy shuddered. She hated the idea that the Watchers Council was composed strictly of guys who thought of people as means to an end. She hated that they were treating her like that, and she hated that they would treat other people like that, too. Were these the kinds of people she was working for?

Worked for, Buffy corrected. After all, now that she and Jack were locked up with the Doctor, Buffy wasn't sure the Watchers Council would ever let them out. Their threats would be far more effective if Buffy were already here. And why send her off to do some dangerous job defending the Earth, when they knew that, the moment she died, the Watchers Council would lose their bargaining chip?

Besides, there was already another Slayer out there to defend the Earth. The Watchers Council didn't need Buffy anymore.

"Now that we're here, what's going to happen to the two of us?" she asked.

Jack grinned. "We wait until the Doctor wakes up, bust him out of here, kick ass, and all wind up at some party over on Tedra Pol. Course, if you like them with tentacles, we could always go to the fifth moon of Raliotoldra. Now, they know how to throw a party."

"You do realize that there's a demon trying to manifest," Buffy reminded him.

"He can join in, too," said Jack. "I'm not picky."

Buffy rolled her eyes at him, but she couldn't help smiling. Jack noticed the smile, and winked at her. He was trying to cheer her up, Buffy realized. And maybe it was working.

"I did that one time, you know," Jack continued. "You should have seen it. Charming demon called Bernice. Now, she was something! Red scaly skin, stepped right out of a portal, started mauling everyone in sight. But then I said to her…"

Buffy sat and listened to Jack's stories, each one crazier and more impossible than the last, and most ending in some sort of… intimate situation. She was pretty sure he was making half of it up. But she was okay with that. Jack may be a major flirt, and his presence may give her a headache of epic proportions, but underneath all that, he was just a sweet guy who wanted to get her mind off her own moral problems. And by the fifth or sixth story, Buffy found that she'd gotten over the worst of her freak-out. She was ready, she was prepared, and as soon as the Doctor woke up, she could apologize to him and get him out of there. Because that was what she did.

She wasn't the Council's Slayer. She wasn't their tool, their killing machine.

She was a human being. Someone who saved lives, someone who saved the world. That was something she chose to do, and it was something she'd keep doing forever. Buffy Anne Summers. Elizabeth Anne Summers. No matter what the timeline, no matter what the name, she was the one who saved people's lives.

And maybe, in the end, that's all she ever wanted.


	15. Chapter 15

Author's Note: I did use Big Finish's "Omega" in this story. Thank you, Big Finish!

I'd also like to add that this is not the first time a character has let the Doctor call her by a name that she really dislikes. Sarah Jane and Romana spring to mind, although I'm sure there are others.

\--00--

"Elizabeth?"

Buffy's head shot up, and Jack stopped his storytelling mid-sentence. The Doctor was sitting up, looking a little dazed but quite a bit better than he had when Buffy had first seen him in here.

"Yeah," said Buffy. "I'm here."

Jack raised an eyebrow, and mouthed at Buffy, 'Elizabeth?'

Buffy shrugged back at him. She hadn't thought she'd accept the name, either. It wasn't her name, and if anyone else called her that, she'd probably smack them. But it seemed to make the Doctor feel better to call her that. And it was sort of growing on her.

The Doctor stared at Buffy, but it was a terrible stare, as if he'd just lost some great battle and couldn't come to terms with the implications of his defeat. As Buffy stared into his sad brown eyes, she recognized that look of crushing, overwhelming failure.

Did he know what she'd done? Was this his disappointment showing through, his anger at the way she'd betrayed his trust?

"I'm sor—," Buffy started.

But the Doctor spoke at the same time. "I hoped they wouldn't bring you," he said. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. But I'll get you out of this. I promise, I won't let them hurt you."

"What? No, no! You're… I'm supposed to be the one apologizing to you!" said Buffy. "The Watchers didn't bring me here, Doctor. I, um, came myself. Well, with some help from a crazy Shadow-you thing. I just wanted, I mean…. Look, you were right. I needed your help. I couldn't do it on my own. I screwed up, I didn't disable the bomb in time, and now I have no idea who's alive and who's dead, or what's going on, and it's all—"

"I know," said the Doctor.

Buffy hung her head. "I'm sorry. I betrayed your trust, I got you locked up in here. I wasn't thinking, I just—"

"Wanted to protect your friends," said the Doctor. "And keep your secrets. I understand that. I don't blame you for what happened."

That made Buffy feel even worse.

"But I shot you!" said Buffy. "You trusted me to get you out of that cage, and instead, I just…. Look, I'm sorry. You want me to be Elizabeth, but I'm not. I'm not the way I was in the other timeline, I'm not someone you should trust. In this timeline, every time I make a choice, I always make the wrong one."

The Doctor gave her a half-smile. "You said that in the other timeline, too," he noted. "Usually right after you chose to do something clever and heroic that saved the world." He winked at her. "Told you, you're brilliant. Brilliant Elizabeth Summers, who's never afraid to do the right thing. No matter what the timeline, you're still the same Elizabeth."

His eyes shifted over to Jack. Buffy could see a slight twinge in the Doctor's face that he was trying to hide. Apparently, Jack gave the Doctor just as bad a headache as he gave Buffy. Possibly worse.

"Captain," the Doctor greeted.

"Doctor," returned Jack. "Looks like someone banged you up pretty good."

"What, this?" said the Doctor. "Nah. I've had worse. Might have even deserved it this time. Omega certainly thought so."

Buffy looked to Jack for clues, but Jack seemed just as lost as Buffy.

"Omega?" asked Jack.

"That shadow who's breaking through into our reality," the Doctor clarified.

"And what's an Omega, then?" asked Buffy.

"He's a legendary Time Lord," explained the Doctor. "From way back. Way, way back. Invented time travel."

"I thought you said there weren't any Time Lords," said Jack.

"Not in the universe, no," said the Doctor. "But Omega isn't in the universe. Not yet. See, way back, in the days of Rassilon, Omega got sucked into a black hole, and wound up living in a world of anti-matter for a couple million years. Whole body eroded away, so he decided to steal mine." The Doctor frowned. "Well, I say steal. More like borrow, really. Sort of a blue print. Build-your-own-Time-Lord-body, using me as the template. Wound up looking like my 5th incarnation, blond hair, cricket outfit and all."

"Oh, the cute one," said Jack.

"Jack," sighed the Doctor.

Buffy was thinking fast. That shadow-Doctor had said something about this. He said he was supposed to be this Doctor's past self, but it all went wrong in… Amsterdam, was it? "I'm guessing it didn't work," she said to the Doctor.

"Not as such," said the Doctor. "Whole process went a bit wrong. Omega was trying to just create a copy of my body, he wound up with a copy of my mind as well. Two personas crammed into one body, one mind."

"The Shadow-you," Buffy realized. "That's the copy of your mind, isn't it? Omega's got two personalities, and each one is fighting to get control."

"Yep," said the Doctor. "Rather sad, actually. Right after it happened, I got sent by the Time Lords to get rid of Omega. Chased him through Amsterdam, thought I destroyed him completely. But, well, turns out, he survived. Body fully intact. But as for his mind — well, if Omega hadn't been mad before (and he was always a bit mad, you know), at this point he completely lost it. Eventually decided to return to the antimatter universe with some help from yours truly. And I thought that was that."

"But now he's come back," said Buffy.

"Trying," said the Doctor.

"Isn't that incredibly dangerous, mixing an antimatter being in with a matter-filled universe?" said Jack.

"Oh, yes," said the Doctor. "But he's a bit clever, Omega. Doesn't actually want to destroy the universe, just enter it. So he worked out a way to siphon off the traces of temporal energy every Slayer releases after her death, used that energy to create a stabilization field that could transform him from antimatter to matter as he enters this reality. Rather brilliant, actually. If he wasn't barmy, I'd shake his hand."

"And what does he want to do when he enters this universe?" asked Jack.

"Destroy it," said the Doctor.

Buffy frowned. "I thought you said he didn't want to—"

"Well, he doesn't know that's what he wants to do," said the Doctor. "But, in the end, that's what it boils down to. Or would do, actually." He gave a cheeky smile. "Good for us he won't be able to."

"We're going to stop him?" guessed Jack.

The Doctor swatted a hand dismissively at him. "Already did," he said. "Taken care of. No way Omega can manage to do what he's planning. Impossible. He can work at it for the rest of his lives and still not find anything."

"And once he discovers that he can't achieve his evil goals, I'm guessing something bad happens," said Buffy. She'd seen this too many times before.

"Oh, he'll probably just kill me, blow up the Earth in an act of revenge and run off in my TARDIS," said the Doctor.

"Oh, well, as long as it's not anything majorly destructive," said Jack, sarcastically.

"So all we have to do to save the world is kill off the shadow creature," said Buffy. "I can do that."

The Doctor gave her a hard stare. "We're not killing Omega," he said. "He's had enough to deal with."

"I'm assuming you've come up with another plan, then?" said Jack. "Because I'm with Buffy on this one."

The Doctor blew a long breath out of his cheeks. "Not yet," he admitted. "But I'll think of something. I usually do." He shrugged, and cracked a smile. "Still, at least it's just Omega coming through. That's not nearly as bad as I thought. Given what else is out there, it could have been a whole lot worse."

"Yeah, about that," said Buffy. "It's a whole lot worse."

The Doctor turned to look at her, arching an eyebrow.

"The Shadow-You thing sort of gave me a message when he brought me here," Buffy explained. "He said there was something worse behind him. He said to tell you that Toby was coming through."

For a few seconds, the Doctor just looked at Buffy with curious, thoughtful eyes, turning the information over in his mind. Then, his eyes widened, and before Buffy knew what was happening, the Doctor was on his feet, his suit jacket dropping to the metallic floor with a loud clang.

"Toby?" he cried. "Toby? Are you sure he said Toby?"

"Yeah, Toby," said Buffy.

"Oh, that's bad," said the Doctor, pulling his hands through his hair. "That's very, very bad."

"Why?" asked Jack. "Who's Toby?"

"Something that probably does know how to destroy the universe," said the Doctor.


	16. Chapter 16

"So there really is a demon named Toby?" asked Buffy. "Some self-respecting demon's wandering around calling himself Toby."

"That's what I call him," said the Doctor. "He calls himself… well, lots of things, really. Went on a five minute monologue about it last time I met him. Satan. The Beast. The Origin of Evil. The First Evil. Evil from Before the Dawn of Time—"

"And you're friends with this guy," said Buffy.

"Well, if by friends you mean I threw him down a black hole, then yes," said the Doctor. "Best friends."

"You fought the Devil," said Jack. "I know you have a messiah complex and all, but this is really taking it too far."

"Devils, demons — sounds like my area of expertise," said Buffy. "Just tell me how to kill it, and we'll be done in time for _Friends_."

"We don't kill it," said the Doctor. "We can't. You can't kill the idea of evil. You can't destroy a concept."

"But you can throw it down a black hole?" asked Buffy.

"This… evil beast thing is in two parts," explained the Doctor. "The body and the mind. The body's easy. Big monster, horns, teeth, the works. I took care of that last time I met it. The mind, though… that's a bit trickier…" He scratched the back of his neck. "Non-corporeal entity drawing its power from every bad thought, every negative emotion in the universe. Can pick your brain apart as soon as look at you — even mine, and that's not easy to do. Likes to play with subconscious thoughts, bring out all your fears, your guilt, your shame, those nightmares that haunt you in the darkest hours of the night. Think all that combined with the power to manipulate the world and the people around him. Believe me, if this thing gets out, no one in the universe will be safe."

"But you defeated it last time," said Buffy.

The Doctor gave a wry smile. "Not me," he confessed. "Rose did it. I never found out how."

"Rose," said Jack. "Is she…?"

"Alive," said the Doctor. "Definitely alive." There was that terrible, lonely expression back on his face again, that expression of hopelessness that Buffy had seen before. And she wondered what had happened to this Rose.

"Hang on," said Buffy. "I get the whole Omega using the Hellmouth to come through thing. And I think I understand the antimatter to matter conversion thing. But here's what I don't get. I mean, Omega's still shadowy because he's trying to get into our reality safely and everything, and that probably takes time. But you said this Toby wasn't actually a demon, but more like… an idea..."

"Non-corporeal manifestation of a concept," clarified the Doctor.

"But a concept isn't made of matter or antimatter," said Buffy. "A concept wouldn't need to do this conversion process that Omega's doing in order to enter our reality. So if Omega's getting through, why isn't Toby here already?"

Jack and the Doctor stared at her. There was a smile crawling up the Doctor's face.

"Oh, Elizabeth," he said, now outright grinning. "That's brilliant."

"I like this one, Doctor," commented Jack. "Smart. Witty. Good with a stake. Easy on the eyes."

"Stop it," warned the Doctor. He thought for a moment. "Must be something to do with the rift. Maybe Elizabeth did something clever to the bomb right before it went off."

"I pointed your screwdriver at it," said Buffy. "I think it was on a different setting at the end, though. Setting 152A."

"That the 'Devil Elimination' setting?" asked Jack.

"No," said the Doctor. "That's the setting that undoes those really tight caps on water bottles."

"You've got a setting for water bottles?" asked Buffy.

The Doctor looked sheepish. "My… friend," he muttered, "Rose. She might have expressed some frustration about opening water bottles."

Buffy thought that was actually kind of sweet. In a really geeky, nerdy, shop-classy kind of way.

Jack turned to Buffy. "Anything you know about the Hellmouth that would not let something like the Devil through?"

"Everything I know about the Hellmouth says he should already be here," said Buffy. "In my experience, at this point I'd probably stumble across some evil cult designed to bring him back or something."

"Maybe there's a good cult trying to keep him out," suggested Jack.

"Cults wouldn't be able to even touch this thing," said the Doctor. "I saw what kinds of restraints were being used on Krop Tor. That level of technology would be unheard of on Earth at this time. Or any other time. It was beyond my understanding, and, well, I'm a genius."

"And very modest," muttered Buffy.

"So something very powerful is keeping Toby out of this universe and we don't know what it is," said Jack.

"In order to hold him back, it'd have to be something with enough power to reshape reality from the inside out," said the Doctor. "Something that could completely shatter this universe and rebuild it from scratch."

"Please don't tell me something like that actually exists," said Buffy.

The Doctor winked at her. "Course not," he said. And Buffy was sure that he was lying.

"But, hypothetically," said Jack, "if something like this _did_ exist, it would be keeping Toby out of this universe, right?"

"If there were any such item," said the Doctor, "and, believe me, there really isn't, it wouldn't be keeping back Toby. It'd be keeping back something far worse."

"You said Toby was basically Evil Incarnate," said Buffy. "What could possibly be worse than that?"

The Doctor raised an eyebrow. "You don't want to know."

"So that's what you meant about Omega trying to destroy the universe," said Jack. "He's going to let Toby in, help Toby to find this hypothetical, non-existent super-weapon, and pretty much turn the entire universe into a scene from Dante's Inferno."

The Doctor's posture stiffened slightly. "Omega could be trying to let Toby in," said the Doctor, carefully. "I'd hoped Omega was sane enough to know not to, but then again, I was also hoping he was sane enough not to punch holes in the universe."

"He didn't sound that sane when he was talking to me before," said Buffy. "It was all, meet your destiny and the inevitable will happen and those lines you get in those cheesy science fiction movies."

The Doctor quirked an eyebrow at her. "Omega?" he asked. "The one with the lower voice?"

"Yeah, the crazy villain one," said Buffy. "He was talking to me back in Sunnydale, when it was… you know. Unstable."

The Doctor walked over to her, quickly. "Elizabeth, what did he say?" he asked.

"He, um…" Buffy swallowed, sorting through her memories and carefully omitting the bits about Angel. Telling some immortal vampire hunter that Angel was still around would definitely not be a good move on her part. "Okay, first he said it was time to meet my destiny. Then he said I couldn't stay in the phone box — sorry, TARDIS? — forever, I'd have to come out eventually, then…" Buffy faltered. "No, wait, he said something before that. About Xander. Yeah, back in the graveyard. Omega said Xander died in a car crash five years ago, and it was only a matter of time before… the inevitable happened." She felt her breath coming a little quicker. "Oh, my God. It's me. This thing that's holding Toby back. It's got to be me. That's why Omega's trying to kill me."

Jack looked surprised. The Doctor waved the notion away.

"Doesn't work like that," said the Doctor. "Trust me. No one person could have the energy reservoirs needed to hold Toby back. Not even the Princess Astra. And considering that Astra was actually —" He stopped, a terrible, dark look washing across his face. It was gone in a second. "This isn't about Elizabeth," he said instead.

"Yeah, it is," said Buffy. "Remember, Jack, when you said it was a miracle I was still alive? Well, I'm still alive because of Xander. See, the Master killed me, about a year and a half ago —"

The Doctor's head shot up at this. "The Master?" he asked. "No, wait. Vampire one, right? Sharp pointy teeth, wrinkly face, looks like he needs a Costco-sized vat of chap stick?"

"Yeah," said Buffy.

The Doctor seemed mildly relieved. "Never have good luck with that name," he muttered.

"Wait, you know him?" asked Buffy.

"Oh, yeah. Both of them," said the Doctor. "Met your vampire Master about 5 days ago, back in 1937. I might have been responsible for causing a minor earthquake in the California area and locking him in a spacio-temporal anomaly. He was a bit miffed about that."

"Right," said Buffy. "Look, all I'm saying is that the Master killed me, and then Xander used CPR to bring me back. That's why there are two Slayers right now. But if Xander had been dead a year and a half ago, then I'd be dead, too. That's what Omega was waiting for — he was trying to get rid of Xander, so that I'd die." Buffy tried not to let her nervousness show, and instead planted a determined look on her face. "Doctor, this is about me. I'm sure of it. I don't know who your Astra is, but somehow, this whole thing revolves around me."

The Doctor's face went completely blank, emotionless. He said nothing, just started pacing the room, hands in his pockets, his head bent and eyes staring at the floor.

Buffy looked over at Jack. Jack was studying the Doctor carefully, trying to pick up hints from his body language and countenance.

"You've worked something out that you're not telling us," said Jack.

"Nah, course not, never," mumbled the Doctor, but it was so half-hearted a protest that Buffy was pretty sure he hadn't meant for anyone to believe it. He glanced over at them, then looked back down at his feet, pointedly. "They're just coincidences," the Doctor insisted. "That's all they are. Just a very complex series of coincidences."

Buffy crossed her arms. "Spill," she demanded. "This is all about me, isn't it?"

The Doctor looked up at her, his lips a thin line across his face. The tension in his jaw, the crease of his brow, every facet of his countenance was woven with guilt, pain, and a trace of denial. For a few seconds he stayed like that, just staring at her. Then finally, he said, "There's nothing wrong with you, Elizabeth."


	17. Chapter 17

That was definitely not what Buffy wanted to hear right now. "There's something wrong with me?"

"No," the Doctor said, firmly, then hesitated, when he saw the angry defiance in her eyes. He faltered, looking even more guilty than before. "You're just temporally complicated," he muttered, as he went back to his pacing. "That's all."

"Buffy hasn't traveled through time," said Jack. "How can she be temporally complicated?"

"She's… she's…" the Doctor whirled around, irritated and a little flustered. "She's a trans-temporal bilocational anomaly."

Jack blinked. "Wait, Buffy's a Line-Hopper?" asked Jack.

"If you want to use 51st century slang, then yes," said the Doctor. "She's a Line-Hopper."

"But that's a theory," said Jack. "A myth. No one's ever proved it's possible."

The Doctor nodded at Buffy. "There's your proof," he said.

Buffy held out her hands in front of her. "Woah, woah, woah, woah, woah!" she said. "Just, wait a second. I'm hopping something?" She looked between the two men. "Is this some sort of Slayer thing?"

"No," said the Doctor and Jack simultaneously.

"Probably better to call you a Line-Twister," said the Doctor. "Basically, you're temporally important in two independent timelines, in two completely different ways. Remove you from either time stream, and the result is, well, unpleasant."

"If you'd never come to Sunnydale as a Slayer, vampires might have taken over the Earth," supplied Jack.

"And if you'd never save me from those Daleks in the gym, a lot of… other bad things might have happened," said the Doctor.

"Okay, I think I get that," said Buffy.

"Good!" said the Doctor. "So, because of this, the two timelines are linked. Woven together. You're essentially living both lives at once, even if you don't know it. In either timeline, you can see strands of the other. Unusual amounts of temporal bleed-through. The timelines keep trying to catch up with one another, and they're not sure how to compensate for events that never happened. So they get a bit tangled together."

"You lost me," said Buffy.

"Think of it like… drawing two different pictures, in marker, on one sheet of paper," the Doctor explained. "You draw one picture on the front, then another on the back. Both equally vibrant, but both completely different. With so many vibrant colors being used on both sides of a single, thin sheet of paper, the ink starts to bleed through the paper. You can see traces of one picture, even when you're looking at the other. Eventually, if you keep drawing, the pictures will both wind up with the same basic features, even if they look a bit different on the other side. Same events, different causes. That sort of thing."

"Oh," said Buffy. "You mean like – at Hemery. The gym still burned down, even though the reason it got destroyed was a little different. All the big milestones in my life stay the same, but the way I get to them is different depending on the timeline."

"Exactly!" said the Doctor.

"And you worked all this out when?" Jack asked the Doctor.

"Had my suspicions from the beginning," said the Doctor. "Temporal coincidences kept piling up. The gym, the move to Sunnydale, the obligation to save the world, those sorts of things. Abnormal amounts of temporal bleed-through. Course, the moment I ran into a hypnotic vampire calling himself the Master, that sort of gave the game away."

"You mean I fought the Master in the other timeline, too?" asked Buffy. "Man, I hate that guy!"

The Doctor didn't reply to this.

"Hang on," said Jack. "If Buffy's a Line-Hopper… well, Slayers don't tend to live that long, on average, and Elizabeth from the other timeline must have had a pretty long life…"

The Doctor arched an eyebrow at him, as if to say that he knew exactly where Jack was going with that. Jack took a deep breath.

"Oh, boy," said Jack.

"Anyone care to clue me in?" asked Buffy.

"When you're a Line-Hopper, every time that something important happens in one timeline, its counterpart hurries to catch up," said Jack. "Daleks in the gym in one timeline, vampires in the other. You become a world-saving superhero in one timeline, and the other timeline says, 'oh, I want a piece of that', and sends some daft alien your way to teach you the world-saving business. You fall in love in one timeline…" Jack looked over at the Doctor.

So did Buffy.

The Doctor was now looking incredibly awkward and very guilty. He was shifting his weight from foot to foot, scratching his earlobe and trying very hard to look at anything and everything except Buffy. And Buffy could see that everything that Jack had guessed about their relationship in the other timeline was true.

"Oh, my God," said Buffy. "I really did…."

The Doctor said nothing.

Buffy hesitated. "But you didn't…?"

"I'm sorry," said the Doctor.

Buffy took a deep breath. This was going to get awkward, confusing, and complicated pretty quickly. "Just so that we're clear, I just met you, I don't have any romantic feelings towards you, and I'm definitely not still pining over any ex-boyfriends I might have sent to Hell for 100 years, no matter what anyone tells you. That clear?"

The Doctor gave a small smile. "Crystal."

"Good," said Buffy. She looked back at Jack, positively deciding to ignore this bit of awkwardness and pretend it never happened. Which was pretty easy, since (for Buffy, at least) it really had never happened. "So, what's all this got to do with me dying?"

"Well, it's just a theory," said Jack. "But if you die for good in one timeline, and you're still alive and well in the other, there's a chance that, because you're a Line-Hopper… in the right conditions, with the right set of circumstances you'd... come back to life."

Um… yeah. Obviously.

"Yeah, I know," said Buffy. "I told you. Master killed me, I came back to life. I've died before."

"Well, only if you use a primitive, 20th century definition of 'life' and 'death'," said Jack. "Dead-dead isn't really the same as able-to-be-revived-using-CPR dead. I should know. I've done both."

"Omega made you temporally unstable because he was trying to kill you in the past, not the present," explained the Doctor. "Normally, if you die in the past, and you don't have the TARDIS to protect you, you sort of pop out of existence. But because of your… temporal condition, you might not. And if you're still around, alive and well, despite the fact that you've died, that's bad. That's very bad. That's punch-a-hole-in-the-universe bad."

"And if you punch a hole in the universe, then Toby will get through," continued Jack.

"But why does Toby need to punch another hole in the universe?" asked Buffy. "I thought he was coming through using the Hellmouth. Isn't that why the bomb was there in the first place?"

Jack looked at the Doctor. "That's a good point."

"It is," admitted the Doctor. He thought about this, running a hand through his hair. "Only thing I can think of is, Toby must not be able to use the Hellmouth, at the moment."

"Why not?" asked Buffy.

The Doctor gave a sigh. "Not a clue," he said. "Sorry."

"Okay, so, to summarize," said Buffy. "The Devil – or Toby, or whatever – is coming through. We don't know why he isn't here yet. We don't know why he can't use the Hellmouth. But he can't, and he isn't, so he's trying to kill me retroactively and punch another hole in the universe. Omega is helping him. That pretty much what we've worked out so far?"

"I wouldn't say that was my primary goal," said Omega. "Really, I just want to get out."


	18. Chapter 18

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Enough Talk, Let's Beat Up the Doctor Already!

Buffy looked over towards the voice, which had come from her left. There, folding out from the air, was the shadow creature, just as misty and insubstantial as the last time she'd seen it.  
"Just think about this, Omega," the Doctor pleaded. "You know what you're unleashing on the universe."

"And is that any better than what the universe already has?" Omega spat at him. "A murderer? A Destroyer of Worlds?"

"It's gone," said the Doctor. "I'm sorry, but Gallifrey's gone. There's nothing I can do about that."

"And you call yourself a pacifist," snarled Omega. He was advancing ever closer to Jack and Buffy. "Never carry a gun. Never carry weapons. Course not! Why use guns when you can demolish the planet?"

The Doctor edged a little closer to Buffy, trying to place himself between her and Omega. Buffy, feeling a bit miffed at having other people try to defend her against stuff that she was perfectly able to fight against herself, moved away and crossed her arms, trying to give him a death glare. The Doctor didn't notice. His eyes were on Omega.

"The funny thing is, Doctor, you may not carry a gun," said Omega. "But your companions do."

And with that, Omega suddenly folded into the air, disappeared, then reappeared a moment later, now holding a small gun. Jack, flustered, checked his firearm hiding spots, patting down coat and pants pockets, even though he knew he'd find nothing. Omega turned the gun on Jack, and fired.

Buffy wondered when the sight of people dying had stopped giving her a sudden, horrified, kneejerk reaction. When that had become the norm around her. It was slightly depressing. Because the moment that Jack died, the prevalent thought in her mind was not, _Oh, my God, Omega just killed someone_ , but was, instead, _were the walls in here always red?_

The walls were, in fact, a different color, now. Red, instead of silver. The bathroom hatch was a slightly different shape. And Buffy could feel those Slayer senses, the ones that had been giving her a headache around Jack, now growing muddled and confused, the way they had in the temporally unstable Sunnydale.

Omega turned, and pointed the gun at Buffy. Buffy froze, and put her hands in the air, slowly, waiting for her advantage. Buffy was guessing that if Omega was solid enough to hold a gun, he was solid enough to attack. She just had to make sure that she could gain the upper hand before she struck out.

Omega gave a small growl of irritation. "It didn't work," he said. "It should have worked."

"You don't want to do this, Omega," said the Doctor. "You can kill me just fine without having to hurt anybody else. You don't have to let Toby in."

Omega turned on the Doctor, the gun now aimed at him. Buffy flashed the Doctor her quickest smile as thanks for the distraction, then snuck, soundlessly, around, so that she could position herself to attack Omega. She had to do this just right, or the gun would go off and kill the Doctor.

"Don't tempt me, Doctor," said Omega. "I could kill you in a second. Don't give me a reason to do so."

"Then do it," said the Doctor, evenly.

Omega pulled the trigger.

Buffy kicked out at Omega's arm at the same time, so that the gunshot went wide, just missing the Doctor's left heart. The Doctor sunk backwards, towards the wooden bench. Except the wooden bench wasn't there anymore.

The shape of the bathroom hatch had changed again, too.

The Doctor hit the metallic ground with a loud clang. He was breathing heavily, blood pooling around him. Buffy was, once again, mildly depressed to realize that her reaction to this was, _You shouldn't have asked for it_ , rather than any horror or shock that Omega had pulled the trigger.

Buffy felt something absolutely sickening inside her head, a lurch like the world had suddenly turned sideways, or maybe on its head, and she just wanted to get rid of whatever was causing this. Or at the very least, get away from it. She focused herself on her human mind, blocking out those annoying Slayer senses that kept getting in the way in this particular adventure. She realized, with her human senses, that there was a gasp from across the room.

Jack opened his eyes. "Son of a bitch, that hurt," he said.

Omega shot him again.

Seeing Omega was distracted, Buffy kicked out at him once more. Omega stumbled, but managed to right himself in time to block her next move. He tried to aim the gun at her, as he continued to fend Buffy off. But Buffy was fast, and she'd been training for a long time. This Omega guy was nowhere near as challenging to fight as most of the vampires she went up against on a regular basis. Buffy was easily able to outmaneuver him, and get the gun from his hands. The moment the weapon left his hand, he once more became insubstantial, misty, and Buffy's attacks went right through his body. Buffy stopped fighting, seeing it was pointless, and instead, clicked the safety back on the gun.

Omega was seething at Buffy. "Why aren't you dead?" he demanded.

"Tried death for a while," said Buffy. "Didn't like it. Thought I might try living."

She looked over at Jack, but he was still dead. She turned to the Doctor. He was alive, but not doing so well. He'd somehow managed to get to his feet again, but was leaning against the wall, depending on it to hold him steady. The wall was now battleship gray.

Buffy went over to help him.

"Sonic," he whispered.

Buffy put her hand in her pocket, and felt for the metal tube. She could feel a knife in her pocket as well. As if it had just appeared there. Buffy remembered what Omega had done, snatching Jack's gun away by just disappearing. She hoped that the knife would disappear as miraculously as it had appeared. Or that Omega wouldn't notice it. But, just in case…. Buffy dug the sonic screwdriver out of her pocket, handing it to the Doctor. Then she put her hand back in her pocket, and clutched the handle of the knife, ready for anything.

The Doctor made some adjustments to his sonic screwdriver and pointed it at the gun. The gun fizzled, then fell apart in Buffy's left hand. She dropped the now useless pieces to the ground.

"We could have used that," whispered Buffy.

"Don't like guns," the Doctor whispered back.

"Then why'd you ask him to shoot you?"

"I didn't think he would!"

Jack gasped back to life in the corner, and Buffy almost reeled as the headache that was Jack's existence flooded her mind. For whatever reason, it was even worse this time. She held herself together, and managed to make the world steady again.

It was, perhaps, this distraction which allowed Omega to get the upper hand, because the next thing Buffy knew, the Doctor was no longer beside her.

He was now being restrained by Omega, backed against the far wall of the little prison cell. Omega had somehow managed to snatch Buffy's knife, and was now holding it at the Doctor's throat. The Doctor didn't look frightened. He just met Omega's shadowy eyes steadily.

"All those people who died," snarled Omega. "All those planets you didn't save. I should kill you. I should kill you right now."

"You're not going to, though," said the Doctor. "I'm the only one in the universe who knows where the thing you want is hidden."

Omega roared with anger at this, his entire shadowy body puffing with black smoke. The knife pressed into the Doctor's neck, and a thin line of blood appeared by the knife's edge. "You'll never tell," Omega spat at him. "I know you'll never tell. You didn't during the War. What hope do I have?"

The Doctor gave Omega a sympathetic look, but said nothing.

Omega pressed the knife further into the Doctor's neck, baring his teeth in a primal snarl. The Doctor sucked in a sharp breath, as the knife sliced deeper.

"Give me one reason I shouldn't, Doctor," Omega demanded. "Give me one reason I should let you live."

"I can help you," said the Doctor.

"You weren't even able to help Adric," growled Omega. He pulled the knife away with an angry shout of rage, and slashed at the Doctor's chest, viciously. The knife cut through the fabric of the Doctor's shirt easily, and reddish-orangey blood soaked through the blue collared shirt. "You lost him just like you lost the others. An innocent young boy and you let him die!" Another slash with the knife, another deep gash across the Doctor's chest.

The Doctor, to his credit, didn't scream once. But Buffy could see that he was losing a lot of blood, and he was not going to make it if she didn't do something fast.

Jack was on his feet in a second, advancing towards Omega. Omega noticed, and held the blade by the Doctor's throat again.

"Any closer and he dies," snapped Omega.

Jack hesitated. He was obviously trying to read the situation, see if Omega would go through with it. Buffy knew that Omega would.

"Jack," said Buffy, quietly. She grabbed his arm, and led him away, giving him a look that told him to let her handle this. This was what she was good at, and she didn't need some amateur to mess it all up. Even if he was immortal (and would probably have objected to being called an amateur).

"You know I couldn't do anything for Adric," said the Doctor. There was something desperately lonely in his voice, something so achingly sad that it cut through the pain that encrusted his every word. "If I could have, I would have. But I couldn't save Adric, or Katarina, or Romana. I couldn't even save Susan. I couldn't save any of them."

Omega gave a yell of rage and punched the Doctor across his jaw. "And that's why you did it?" he demanded. "That's why Gallifrey is gone? Because you felt you had no other choice?"

Buffy was edging her way closer, as silently as she could, taking advantage of their talking to mask her advance. She sort of wished the Doctor would scream, as it would give her a chance to race forward and rush Omega all at once. But, no such luck.

"I'm sorry, Omega," said the Doctor. "I am. I really, really am. But you don't have to do this."

"You don't deserve happiness, Doctor," said Omega. "You deserve nothing but pain and torment and agony for all your days. You should be sent into the furthest pits of Hell for what you've done. But no. You locked the Devil up with me instead. You sentenced me to that fate, to that torment. Me, the all powerful Omega, who never did harm to anyone!"

"I can help you," said the Doctor. His voice was weakening. He struggled to remain conscious. "But you can't… use the Ke… can't unlock… the War…"

"I'll find a way," said Omega, through gritted teeth. "Even if you won't tell me how, I'll find a way. I've got to."

The Doctor tried to reply to this, but he was growing too weak, and was beginning to slump forwards, leaning heavily on Omega. Buffy crept a little bit further, so she was in just the right position, and with a single lunge, she managed to throw Omega over her shoulder and catch the Doctor as he fell.

"Why are you still alive?" demanded Omega of Buffy, getting up off the floor. "You should have died by now!" Then he noticed Jack, who was running over to help Buffy with the Doctor. "Oh, that's why." He threw the dagger at Jack, and hit him squarely in the chest. Jack collapsed to the floor, and died.

Buffy was starting to understand why Jack was none too keen on immortality.

Buffy tried to apply pressure to some of the Doctor's wounds, but she wasn't sure how much she could do. There were too many wounds, and Buffy didn't have enough hands. Or medical training. Or any understanding of alien anatomy. The Doctor was still conscious (even though Buffy was pretty sure he should be dead by now), but he was looking pretty bad. Buffy gave him a reassuring smile.

"You're going to be okay," she said, even though she wasn't sure if it was true.

"Why are you helping him?" asked Omega, fuming from the other side of the cell. "Do you have any idea what he's done?"

"He isn't the one trying to kill me at the moment," said Buffy.

"He killed his own granddaughter!" shouted Omega. "He slaughtered his entire planet, ten billion lives! He will go on to kill off 66% of the Earth's population over the next century. And one day, Buffy Summers, if you get too close to him, he'll kill you, too. That's what he does to the people around him. He destroys them."

Buffy felt her breath catch in her throat. Not just because of the 66% of the Earth thing, although that had certainly caught her attention. No, what Omega had said — _that's what he does to the people around him; he destroys them_. That was what Angel had told her. He'd said the Doctor would destroy her if she got too close to him. And if that was true, then maybe all those other things that Omega was claiming the Doctor had done…

No, snap out of it, Buffy. True, she hadn't known the Doctor very long, but none of that sounded like anything he'd do. She remembered the way he'd looked at the gun — like it disgusted him. She remembered how the Doctor had reacted when he'd first heard that she was the Slayer. She remembered how he'd asked her to help him, how he'd begged Faith to let him save the world before they condemned him. Was that the kind of person who'd kill 66% of the Earth? Was that the kind of person who'd blow up planets?

"I couldn't… let Rassilon…." gasped the Doctor to Omega. "Ascension… Ultimate Sanction…."

Buffy expected Omega to fly into a rage at this, but, for some weird reason, he didn't. He stumbled backwards, staring at the Doctor as if he couldn't quite believe what he'd done.

"Rassilon," Omega repeated, and shuddered.

Buffy remembered Rassilon from Giles' book. Some big hero, the book had said. Apparently, the book had gotten that bit wrong, too.

Omega stepped back, his eyes fixed on the Doctor. His breathing was audible, frantic, almost panicked as it echoed across the small little prison cell. "Don't send me back, Doctor," Omega pleaded, his voice barely a whisper upon the world. "Please don't send me back. I have to get out. Let me get out. You have to… I have to…." He rushed forward, then stopped. "I have to kill you!" he shouted, but it was less angry, now, more desperate.

The Doctor said nothing. He was looking at Omega, and Buffy thought there was something vaguely pensive about his countenance, although it was hard to tell through the pain and the blood loss.

He looked back at her, and there was something bright in his eyes, something warm and reassuring. But the glow soon faded, as Buffy realized he was rapidly losing consciousness. "Elizabeth," he said. "Knife. Jack. Get…"

And with that, he passed out.

Omega was advancing towards Buffy, his menacing, shadow form drifting through the air. He eyed the Doctor, warily. "Die," he muttered. "Die." Then he surged forwards, clasping his hands around the Doctor's throat.

"He has to die!" he shouted.

Buffy, who was already sitting right there next to the Doctor, and in perfect striking distance, socked Omega in the jaw. She'd worked this out. As long as Omega was holding onto something in the real world, he was solid enough to attack. Throats included.

Omega stumbled back, but was not deterred for long. He folded into the air, appearing, without warning, right behind Buffy, reaching around her to put his hands around the Doctor's throat, trapping Buffy between his shadowy form and the Doctor's limp, unconscious one. Buffy struck out at Omega again, but Omega was ready for it this time, and held his grip with a fierce determination. Buffy did everything she could think of, including trying to prize Omega's hands from the Doctor's throat, and kicking Omega in a rather sensitive area. Neither worked (which, Buffy thought, might imply some rather interesting things about Time Lord anatomy). Omega ignored Buffy, fully intent on killing the Doctor.

The Doctor began making strangled, choking sounds, sounds which continued even far past when Buffy was sure he should have keeled over and died. But as the Doctor was dying in front of her, Omega had begun screaming at the top of his lungs: "No! No! No!"

Buffy hated it when demons screamed in her ear. No, scratch that. She just hated demons in general.

Omega's voice was getting louder and louder with every insistent repetition, his hands still clenched tight. "No! No! No! No! No!" The scream was so desperate, it reminded Buffy of that moment back on the TARDIS, when the Shadow-Doctor had been screaming at her to leave. And then, without any rhyme or reason, just as Buffy thought the Doctor really was going to die, Omega folded up into the air, and vanished.

Buffy looked around, expecting Omega to appear somewhere else, but he didn't. He really was gone. She turned back to the Doctor. He was breathing heavily, trying to make up for his recent oxygen deprivation. Where was Xander when you needed him? Because if the Doctor did stop breathing, Buffy definitely did not know CPR.

Maybe Jack did.

Buffy looked over at Jack, but he was still dead, the knife poking out of his chest. Hang on, the Doctor had said something about that, before. Buffy got to her feet, and made her way over to Jack. She didn't know what the Doctor wanted her to do with Jack and the knife, but she assumed that whatever it was, she could make a start by taking the knife out. So she did.

Jack gasped back to life. Buffy felt her head reeling, her world juddering around her. Ugh, she really, really hated that. She managed to recover herself, hopefully before Jack noticed.

Jack sat up, looking around for Omega. "Is he gone?"

"He's gone," said Buffy. She put the knife down on the new metal bench, which must have appeared at some point since Jack had last died. "But the Doctor's not doing too well."

Jack's eyes fell on the Doctor. He swore, loudly, jumping to his feet and running over to him. The Doctor flinched away as Jack approached, although he did so more sluggishly this time than last.

"He's still breathing," Buffy offered, as Jack knelt down by the Doctor's side. She moved nearby, hovering over them. "I just don't know how long he'll still be able to, and I don't know CPR."

Jack checked the Doctor's pulse, then bent down and listened to both sides of his chest. "He's down to one heart," said Jack.

"Good thing he has two?" offered Buffy.

"It's not a good sign," replied Jack. "We better stop this bleeding, first, though. Do you still have the sonic screwdriver?"

Buffy checked in her pocket, then remembered that she'd given it to the Doctor earlier. He was using it to dismantle the gun, just before he'd gotten hauled off by Omega. He must have dropped it. Sure enough, Buffy could see the small, metal tube at the other end of the cell. She ran over, picked it up, and handed it to Jack.

Jack adjusted the settings, then began to apply it to the Doctor's injuries. The Doctor gave a soft groan, but otherwise remained unconscious.

"Look, not to rain on your parade of complete faith and devotion but… how well do you know this guy, exactly?" asked Buffy. "I mean, it's just… you said he was the nice kind of alien."

"He is," said Jack.

"So he wouldn't, say, kill off 66% of the Earth's population over the next century, or blow up his home planet or anything, right?"

Jack stopped the sonic, suddenly. "His home world is gone," said Jack. "I don't know the whole story, but I know it's because of something he did. But he didn't… he's not a monster. Whatever he did, he wasn't happy about it, but he felt he had to do it. For the sake of the universe. I can't tell you if it's true. I wasn't there. But I'll tell you this. I never doubted him. And I never will. If he did it, it had to be done."

"He could just be taking you in," said Buffy. "I mean, this whole remorse thing, it could all be an act. I've seen that before."

Jack shook his head. He started with the sonic screwdriver again, applying its light to the Doctor's wounds. Cauterizing them, Buffy realized. "You don't fake something like that," said Jack. "Rose said, when she first met him, he was… really traumatized. Semi-suicidal, prone to huge mood swings, refusing to talk about himself or where he came from. He doesn't really sleep, but Rose said she could always tell when he did, because of the nightmares. She said the screaming would wake her up." Jack shivered, slightly. "And he doesn't scream about just anything. I think you saw that."

Buffy nodded.

"He didn't do that, so much, when I came around. Rose made him better, I think." Jack had a sad, far off look on his face. "I wonder what happened to her."

"He said she was alive," said Buffy. "Unless he was lying."

Jack started on another wound, shining the sonic against it. "Yeah," he said.

For a few moments, there was no sound except the buzz of the sonic screwdriver.

"If he really does kill 66% of Earth's population at some point in the future," said Buffy, "I have to stop him. Even if that means killing him. It's my job."

"There's a big difference between killing someone and not being able to save someone," said Jack. "The Doctor… sometimes forgets to make that distinction." He glanced at Buffy, and shrugged. "If it does happen, I'll be defending the Earth right beside you, Buffy. I don't like scenarios where 66% of the world gets slaughtered. That's usually something I try to avoid."

"Even if it's against him?" asked Buffy, nodding at the Doctor. "Even if it's because, I don't know, he flips out and turns evil and starts killing everyone?"

Jack's face was tight and creased in worry. His eyes were swimming with possibilities of the future, of what-ifs and maybes and never-will-happens. "He'd want me to," said Jack. He blinked, and then shook off the potential futures he'd been considering. "But that's never going to happen. Told you. Never doubted him, never will."

But the possibility still lingered in the air, over their heads. And they couldn't shake it off.


	19. Chapter 19

Buffy didn't know how long they waited for the Doctor to get up. The time seemed endless, hours, minutes, and seconds all rolling into one big sack of emptiness. Loneliness. Isolation. Yes, Buffy still had Jack to talk to, but they were both distracted. Their conversation felt stifled, Jack's flirts were half-hearted, and eventually, they just laid off talking all together.

Buffy had thought she'd relish the time away from the Doctor, that it'd give her a chance to think a bit and maybe come to some conclusion. After all, she'd just saved this guy's life. Had he deserved it? But she hadn't come to any conclusions.

Should she have let Omega kill him? Should she have just killed him herself? Buffy knew she had to do what was right for the Earth. That was her job. It was what she'd been Chosen to do, in this timeline. And it's what she done voluntarily in the other timeline. If the Doctor was going to kill off 66% of the Earth, she should take him out now, before he could do it. But if Omega had been lying… then she'd be killing an innocent person, and…

Angel had said. At the very beginning. He'd said not to kill the Doctor. He'd said she'd never forgive him, if he let her do that.

What did Angel know that she didn't? How did Angel know the Doctor? And why was Angel so terrified of him?

She wanted to believe that the Doctor had a soul, that there really was someone out there to rescue the rescuers, but she couldn't deny the facts. The Doctor had been present at every single Slayer's death before her, and had, apparently, done nothing to save them. Jack said he'd blown up his own planet. Omega said he was going to kill a fairly large percentage of the Earth's population. The Doctor himself as well as admitted that he'd single handedly wiped out an entire timeline. And Angel wasn't able to tell her that he was a good guy. In fact, Angel had said to stay away from him.

But the Doctor had also thrown Toby down a black hole. He'd started an earthquake to trap the Master in the Hellmouth back in 1937. He didn't like guns and weaponry, didn't like violence, and even Giles' book had claimed that the Doctor would rather chat with his foes than attack them. And he'd come back to Sunnydale, even though he'd known that the Watchers Council wanted to do this to him, because he'd wanted to help Buffy.

The other thing was, Buffy kind of liked the Doctor. Not in a romantic potential-boyfriend type of way. But she liked him. True, she'd only just met him, and she had every reason not to trust him, but he was, well, sweet. A bit insane, but sincere. Smart. Devoted to his friends. And it sounded, from all the non-brainwashy descriptions of him, like he was pretty much doing what she was. Fighting off evil monsters. Defending the world. Saving friends. Protecting people. Protecting her.

But was the Doctor actually a good guy, or was he just pretending to be a good guy to win her trust?

Buffy found herself wishing — hoping — that the Doctor would really turn out to be the magical, amazing alien that Jack kept saying he was, someone who could fight vampires without killing them, someone who could do the impossible as if it was ordinary. Because Jack was right. At the end of the day, when you're being thrown into life threatening situation after life threatening situation, it really did help to think that there was someone out there, someone who would care if you were killed, someone who could fix things after you died. Someone who might save you, if you needed him. It filled Buffy with…

"Hope," muttered the Doctor.

Buffy jumped at the voice. She snapped her head around to look at the Doctor, who was, quite suddenly, looking much better than he had been before. Almost completely healed. Which really shouldn't have been possible, at the rate that he'd been healing up to this point. The Doctor sat up, a smile on his face, as he looked at Buffy and Jack.

"Hope!" he said. "That's what we've got. Hope!"

Buffy and Jack looked at each other, hoping for clues. Nope, no clues.

"Care to explain that, Doc?" asked Jack.

"Don't call me Doc," said the Doctor, hopping to his feet. "I worked out why Toby's not coming through. I know why they need Elizabeth. We've got hope, that's what we've got."

"So, hope is keeping Toby out?" guessed Buffy.

"Course not," said the Doctor. He picked up his suit jacket and shrugged it on, digging through his pockets — his hand dipping down almost to his elbow — a thoughtful expression on his face. "We're the ones with hope. Not Toby. We've got hope, because I know who's actually holding the cards. And it's someone we can reason with." He frowned. "You haven't seen—?"

Jack held out the sonic screwdriver, with his most charming grin and a wink.

The Doctor took it, and started buzzing at the door.

"Does he usually heal that fast?" Buffy whispered to Jack.

Jack shook his head. "You're looking a lot better, Doctor," Jack remarked to him.

"Residual regenerative energy," said the Doctor. "Someone's channeling a large amount of regenerative energy right above our heads, and my body just soaked it up like a sponge."

"Regenerative energy?" asked Jack. "But where would someone get…"

The Doctor glanced back over his shoulder, at Jack, then looked pointedly at Buffy. "Slayers," he said.

Jack and Buffy looked at each other again.

The Doctor turned around to face them. "Didn't I explain this before? Why I'm locked up in here?"

"You told me it was because you knew something about the Slayer," said Buffy. "And the Watchers Council thought you'd take revenge."

"Exactly," said the Doctor.

Buffy and Jack looked at one another. The Doctor frowned.

"You mean you haven't worked it out, yet?" The Doctor looked at Jack. "Not even you, Captain?"

From the blank expressions on Jack and Buffy's faces, it was pretty obvious that they hadn't.

The Doctor pulled a hand through his hair, making it stick up even more than usual. He began pacing. "The Slayer. Always female. Faster, stronger, more agile than she looks — muscles bigger on the inside. Has temporally aware dreams. Has special senses to tell her whenever there's something wrong with the universe. Senses that alert her when something terrible enough emerges, some enemy that intends to throw the Web of Time out of sync. And she's alone. Always, always, always, even when surrounded by friends and family, she feels alone. As if she's the only one in the universe. As if there's no one else left." He looked back at Jack. "None of that seem familiar to you, Captain?"

Jack's mouth dropped open. He tried to speak, but no words came out.

Buffy still had no idea what the Doctor was talking about. "I don't get it."

The Doctor sighed. "The Slayer consciousness is a Time Lord consciousness," he said. "That was how the Shadow Men created you lot. They killed the only other member of my species left in the universe."

And it suddenly all made sense to Buffy. The way that the Doctor could match her every move, when she'd been fighting him. His speed and agility. The way they both reacted to Jack. She could imagine, if the Doctor had undergone her kind of training, that he might even share her strength.

"But I heal way faster than you," Buffy pointed out. "Without a healing coma thing."

The Doctor said nothing a moment, his eyes growing dark. "The healing process is accelerated in Gallifreyan infants," said the Doctor, at last. "Particularly in those under a year old."

Buffy's eyes widened. "But that means… the Slayer consciousness… is… a baby. A baby Time Lord."

"I thought you said that you'd know if there were other Time Lords around," said Jack.

"She was an infant," said the Doctor. "The telepathic center of her brain hadn't quite developed yet. Elizabeth's a temporally complex individual — that lets her feel something in her head when I'm around. But for me, and for the other Slayers… it's just nothing. Empty."

"They murdered a baby," Buffy said again.

"Yes," said the Doctor. "They did."

"A baby!" exclaimed Buffy. She still couldn't quite believe it. "And not a baby demon or a baby vampire or anything. Just a baby… you-type thing!"

The Doctor kept his face carefully blank. Emotionless. There was a dull lifelessness in his eyes, something hard and cold and ancient. Buffy could remember the horror on the Doctor's face, way back when this had first started — that first time she'd seen him, when she'd told him about her Slayer senses. She could remember, so clearly, what he'd said to her, the words that had haunted her for so long afterwards:

( _Buffy Summers, I don't think there's any good left in you_ ).

"Is that what you thought I'd done?" asked Buffy. "Back when you said there was nothing good left in me? You thought I murdered a child?"

"I told you, I was wrong," said the Doctor. "So wrong." He looked down at his trainers. "It wasn't you who destroyed that infant, Elizabeth. It was me."

Buffy froze. "No, you said it was these Shadow Men…"

"But I let it happen!" said the Doctor. "I was there, Elizabeth. I could have saved her. I could have stopped the ceremony. But what would that have meant? I've seen every mistake a Slayer has made, but I've also seen how they've saved this world. What they've done for Time. In a universe with no Time Lords, the Slayers are the ones who ensure the Web of Time is upheld on Earth. If I undid that, if I unraveled that strand of Time, do you have any idea how many lives I would wipe out? And I thought — if the Shadow Men used my own consciousness instead. But they couldn't. Their magic wouldn't even dent the edge of a fully formed Time Lord mind. It had to be that little child. She didn't even have a name, yet, and I doomed her to die." He took a few deep breaths that Buffy thought might almost have been sobs, if they hadn't been so full of angry self-loathing and revulsion. "I had her in my arms. That little infant. Five times, I nearly brought her back to the TARDIS. Five times, I nearly saved her life. But I couldn't. I condemned her to die." He stared into Buffy's eyes. "That's the sort of monster I am. The one who killed an infant, the one who damned countless numbers of teenage girls. I went back in time to give you the life you deserved, and I did the opposite. You want to know why you're the Slayer? Why your life is ruined? It's not the Watchers' faults. It's not Giles' fault. It's mine! Your destiny, your training, your feelings of loneliness and isolation — all of that is my fault."

Buffy just stood there, not really sure how to take this. Was this the same man she'd thought might destroy the Earth, a few minutes ago? That loneliness he'd described to her — the empty feeling in his head. He could have stopped that. He might not have had to be alone, he might have been able to save another member of his own species. A female member. A way back, a way to repopulate. But he'd let that go, sacrificed that life for the Earth. And the next time he'd seen Buffy — in that cemetery, right after she'd spoken to Angel. She could still remember that terrible anger in his eyes, the fury and disgust she'd seen written all over his features. She'd thought they were for her, but they were for himself. For what he'd done. To that infant. To herself. To all the Slayers before her.

Was that why he'd seen every one of them die, even though he couldn't stop their deaths? Was it his vigil, his penance for a crime he couldn't forgive himself for committing?

And what was Buffy supposed to tell the Doctor now? That she was sorry? But that wouldn't do anything. He didn't blame her for any of it. Not since that first night. He thought _he_ was the monster, not her. Trading one innocent life for the rest of the planet. But hadn't that been the very choice that Buffy had made last year? How could she condemn him for something she'd done herself?

Buffy took the Doctor's hands in hers, feeling his double pulse thrum through his veins, feeling that reassuring hum in her Slayer senses that, she now knew, meant only that he was there.

"I forgive you," she said.

The Doctor clutched her hands, and she watched the self-loathing and disgust melt away as he looked at her. And there was something so grateful in his eyes, something that showed that her words meant something far, far deeper than Buffy had ever imagined.

And all of a sudden, the Doctor grinned, a dazzling, bright grin, one that seemed to illuminate the room. It felt like the sun had just peaked out from the clouds — or was that just Buffy's own soul, rejoicing because finally, finally, finally, she'd done something right in this adventure?

Even Jack was looking at Buffy with something like awe in his face. And why was it that those three words provoked more of a reaction than her entire battle against a shadow demon Time Lord who was trying to destroy the universe? Why did they mean more to the Doctor than the fact that she'd saved his life?

"Well, then," said the Doctor, in a light, friendly, chirpy voice. "Better get to it. Universe to save and all." He beamed at her, and with a sudden leap, he was back at the door, buzzing at it with his sonic screwdriver. And Buffy realized that this was the first time she'd ever heard the Doctor speak without having guilt and devastation weigh down his every word.

"You do know that's deadlock sealed, right?" said Jack. "You're never going to get through it with the sonic."

There was a thunk from inside the door, and, very slowly, it began to open. The Doctor grinned. "Good thing for us that someone's already unlocked it, then," he said.

Buffy and Jack looked at each other. They were both thinking the same thing.

"Someone's unlocked it," said Buffy. "From the outside. Someone who wants us to leave here."

"Someone who specifically gave you the regenerative energy you needed to recover so you could come up and meet them," added Jack.

"Someone who you claim is trying to use that energy to destroy the universe," added Buffy.

"Yep," agreed the Doctor. He was maddeningly nonchalant about the whole thing.

"Which means you're asking us to walk into a trap," Buffy said.

"Pretty much," said the Doctor. He glanced over his shoulder, and winked at them. "But don't worry. I've got a plan."

"This plan of yours doesn't happen to involve you dying, right?" asked Jack, with the experience of one who has seen the Doctor pull this sort of thing before.

"Nope!" said the Doctor, sticking his hands into his pockets. "No one else dies today! Not even you, again, if I can help it."

"Because you've got a magic space weapon that's going to make this all better?" asked Buffy, hopefully.

The Doctor arched an eyebrow at her. "Because I've got words," said the Doctor. "And words are worth a thousand weapons."

Buffy scoffed. "Yeah, whatever. You go in with your words. And when you get totally screwed over, I'll take out Omega and save your life."

"We're not taking out Omega," insisted the Doctor. "We're going to be civil and decent, and we're going to reason with him."

"You tried that already," said Jack. "Twice. It didn't work very well."

"True," said the Doctor. "But, like I said. I've got a plan."

Buffy and Jack looked at one another. They'd just seen this guy get beaten to within an inch of his life, twice. Wasn't that the definition of insanity, doing the same thing over and over again and hoping for different results?

The door finished opening, revealing the empty basement. Buffy thought she could hear the reverberations of something happening above them. There were screams echoing down through the air.

"Well, allons-y!" cried the Doctor. And with that, he rushed out the door.

Buffy turned to Jack. "He's totally lost it."

Jack smiled. "Yeah, but he does look great in a suit," he said, and followed the Doctor out the door.


	20. Chapter 20

The end of the universe was actually not that much unlike the end of the world, Buffy noted. Both basically consisted of a whole lot of property damage, a large number of screaming people, and a dimensional portal that was threatening to open.

The portal was what they found in the room the Doctor led them to. The doors had been ripped off their hinges, and the bookcases that had once lined the walls were trashed, often knocked down. Books were everywhere. The portal itself — well, it wasn't exactly a portal, not yet. It was more like… a big ball of yellow and blue energy, slowly rotating in the center of the room, about five feet off the floor. It looked almost pretty, considering it was about to spell out doom for every living thing.

At one end of the room, on the other side of the floating energy ball, there appeared to be a stack of toppled bookcases arranged in such a way to form an elevated stage area. There, posed as if he had expected to be discovered, stood Omega, in all his shadowy glory.

"Doctor," he said.

The Doctor was standing in the doorway, Buffy and Jack behind him. Buffy was getting ready to fight. Jack, beside her, looked like he was doing pretty much the same thing. The Doctor was not. He seemed completely relaxed, his hands in his pockets, his eyes mildly curious.

"Omega," the Doctor acknowledged.

"At last, you have arrived to witness my victory," said Omega.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," dismissed the Doctor, strolling into the room. "Thing is, it's not really your victory, is it, Omega?"

"I have been planning for this for centuries," cried Omega. "Not even you can stop me, Doctor."

The Doctor just kept strolling towards Omega, completely unconcerned. "Really? Because it seems to me, if you _were_ trying to open the Hellmouth, if you were _really_ trying to get through, you'd have done it by now."

Buffy hit her head against the palm of her hand. She could see where this was going. Omega was going to laugh maniacally, and tell the Doctor that he'd been waiting for the correct time and place for his glorious ascension. Evil villain types usually waited for big important dates in history to spring their evil plans. It was pretty standard.

But after a few moments, when Omega didn't say anything, Buffy looked up, wondering what the holdup was.

Omega was looking between the Doctor and the big, swirling ball of energy, but there was an odd expression on his face. Almost… unnerved. Like he was hesitating, just that little bit.

"Oh, yeah," said the Doctor. "I know how much energy you've been siphoning off. You could have opened the Hellmouth centuries ago. You could have opened even the Cardiff Rift about 200 years ago, without needing a Zen-12 or a temporally unstable bilocational anomaly like Elizabeth. But you didn't. Why?"

"I… I…" started Omega. He cleared his throat, then tried again. "I needed more."

"Yes," said the Doctor. "More. And more, and more, and more, and more. Always more power. Always more energy. Why, Omega? Why?"

"It... it was necessary," Omega said. His voice was desperate, almost pleading.

"I know," agreed the Doctor. He stopped, at the base of Omega's makeshift stage, his eyes fixed on the shadowy creature. His voice, when he spoke again, was kinder, gentler, as if he were coaxing a frightened animal. "It was necessary. So, so necessary. I understand that. But it's not enough. It's never going to be enough."

"I can get more!" Omega insisted. "There's got to be a way —"

"I'm sorry," said the Doctor. "I'm so, so sorry. But in the end, you'll never be able to get the energy you need. Your plan will never work."

Omega glanced over at the ball of energy, nervously. There was something knocking at it from the other side. Something angry and ferocious. Something that smelled like hate.

"You don't know my plan, Doctor," said Omega.

"Oh, I do," said the Doctor. "Because that ball of temporal energy over there — that's a drop in the bucket. I've seen how many Slayers have died. The energy you've got here, it's nothing compared to the amount of energy you've gathered so far." He looked behind him, at the glowing, pulsing ball of energy in the center of the room. "You haven't been using the regenerative energy to open the Hellmouth. You've been using it to keep him away from the Hellmouth." He looked back at Omega, and gave a sad smile. "You're the one who's been keeping Toby out."


	21. Chapter 21

Buffy stared at the Doctor, at Omega, at the soon-to-be-open portal. No. No, that didn't make sense. Omega had been trying to kill her. He'd been so angry that she hadn't died already. Then he'd nearly killed the Doctor. And now he was trying to create some evil inter-dimensional portal. He was evil. He had to be evil.

"What?" cried Jack. "You said he was letting Toby in!"

"He is," said the Doctor.

"And he's also keeping Toby out?" said Buffy.

"Yes."

"He will come through, Doctor," shouted Omega. "The Origin of All Evil will be here, and you will serve him!"

"Do you want that, Omega?" asked the Doctor. "Is that what you really want?"

Omega blinked, and suddenly, he was back to being that frightened, trembling, desperate creature from before. "I… I…" He swallowed. "I don't…"

"You're confused, Omega," said the Doctor, in that calm, soothing tone of voice that he'd used earlier. "You're confused and frightened, and you don't know what to do. You have too many voices in your head and you don't know which to follow. All my old regenerations. All your old regenerations. And then there's that extra little nasty voice inside your head, that hateful little voice that's been trying to get you to let it through. And it's confusing, all those voices telling you to do contradictory things. In the end, it's enough to make you question who you really are."

"No!" Omega shouted. "I know who I am. I am Omega! Creator of the Eye of Harmony, founder of… of…" His face seemed to crumple. "You killed it, Doctor!" he screamed. "You killed them all!"

"I had to," said the Doctor. "We all have to do things we don't like. We all have to make choices we don't want to make. Even you."

"You… you…" Omega threw his hands to his head, as if in pain. When he spoke again, it was with an angry growl. "You should die, Doctor! I should kill you!"

"That voice in your head," continued the Doctor, soothingly, unaffected by the threats, "it's been telling you all the things I've done, all the reasons you should take revenge. But you know as well as I do that revenge is never going to get them back, Omega. Revenge can never undo what's been done."

"Revenge will fix everything!" insisted Omega.

"That what that little hateful voice inside your head's been telling you?" asked the Doctor.

"I will destroy it all, I will make the universe fear the name of O… O… Omega…" Omega faltered. "It's not fair! I have to get out, Doctor. I have to get out!"

"I'm sorry, Omega," said the Doctor. "You can't get out. And you know why."

Omega hung his head, looking almost like a chided student. "If I get out, he gets out, too," Omega whispered.

"And you've been trying to keep him away from here," said the Doctor. "You're a good person, Omega. You'd never let something like this happen."

"You put him in there," Omega accused. "You locked him up with me. It should have been you! It should have been you!"

The Doctor's face clouded. "Yes, it should have," said the Doctor. "But it wasn't. My going in there will solve nothing. It'll only make things worse. In the end, you're the only one who can fix this. You're the only one who can make sure Toby stays out."

Omega was staring at the portal, trying to decide. He was wavering, hesitating, trying to get up the courage to do the right thing. Buffy was holding her breath. She wasn't completely sure she believed her eyes or ears. She was watching the Doctor talk a villain into doing the right thing. He wasn't killing the villain or beating the villain up. He was just… talking. And the weird thing was, it was working!

Omega took a step forward, paused, then seemed to huddle in on himself. "Can't," murmured Omega. "Can't go back there. Don't make me do it!"

"I know you're frightened," said the Doctor, soothingly. "I know what you've gone through already. But you know what's right. You know what you have to do. You've created a potential hole in the universe, a probability that’s becoming increasingly stable over time. The only way to seal it is to close the breach on both sides. I will help you, Omega, but you have to help me."

Omega huddled, whimpering, on the stage. "You don't know what it's like back there," he said. "I see them, Doctor. Every day. Ten billion people and they are screaming. Screaming! They know what you did, Doctor! They know what you did!"

"They aren't real, Omega," said the Doctor. "You don't have to feel guilty. It's my guilt, my responsibility. Be remembered as the one Time Lord left in existence who did the right thing. The one Time Lord who had the courage to make the right choice."

Omega stared at the Doctor. "No, they're real! I saw them, I heard them, they…."

"They're like the Scintillans," said the Doctor. "You've blamed yourself for killing them, and the guilt is making them seem real. But they're not. And they shouldn't be. You didn't destroy them, Omega. I did. You don't have to blame yourself for this. If you stop the blame, they'll go away."

"They're real," said Omega. "They're all back there. Waiting to torment me."

"I know it's not going to be easy," said the Doctor. "It's never easy to do the right thing. Everyone here knows that. But we believe in you. We all believe that you have the strength to do this. To make things right. Go back, seal the breach from the other side, and keep Toby out of the universe." The Doctor gave a long, sad smile. "Be the hero, Omega, the way you always were. Let me be the villain."

"I can be a hero again," Omega realized. "The way I was before. The way I was on Gallifrey, before I ever met you. I can be remembered for greatness."

"You can."

Omega got up, a determined look on his face. He took a few steps forward, towards the portal, but then he faltered, slowed, and stopped. His shadowy hands were shaking, as he stared at the portal with open terror. "No… no…." He stepped back. "I don't have to go back, Doctor! I can still be a hero out here. I can keep him out from this end. The energy I've built up, it will be enough."

"It won't be enough," said the Doctor.

"It can!" insisted Omega. "I can find more. I can—"

"It'll never be enough," said the Doctor. "Do the maths, Omega. The energy required approaches infinity over time. If you remain here, if you don't seal the breach, nothing in the universe will have enough energy to keep Toby out. Not even the Key to Time."

Omega's desperation and fear fell away at those words, as he stared at the Doctor, realization washing across his face. Not just realization, but relief — an overpowering sense of dark, deep relief. As the relief grew, a cruel maliciousness seemed to ripple through Omega's smoky body.

The Doctor's brave face faltered, just a hair.

And Buffy knew, with a sudden, icy clarity, that the Doctor had just said exactly the wrong thing.


	22. Chapter 22

"I can help you, Omega," the Doctor amended, but it was too late.

"Yes, you can, Doctor," said Omega, his deep voice gaining in power and determination, as he straightened up to his full height. "Yes, you will." He now stood with a malevolent sort of air, staring down at the Doctor as if he were nothing. A plaything for his amusement. Omega snapped his fingers, and the ball of energy rippled and glowed more brightly, as a group of vampires leapt through its center and into the room.

These vampires were not as human-looking as the vampires Buffy was used to. Their faces were more shriveled, their skin more pale, perhaps a little green-tinted, their teeth looking sharp and feral. They were also larger, faster, and, Buffy was guessing, harder to kill.

The vampires quickly circled the Doctor, seizing him by his arms and dragging him up the stage towards Omega.

"Vampires?" asked the Doctor. "Omega, listen to me! If you're still in there, if there's any little bit of you left, just think about this! This isn't you. You fought a war against these blood drinkers! You defeated the Queen of the Great Vampires yourself!"

"Your pet humans looked bored," said Omega. "I thought I'd give them something to do."

Buffy watched, as more vampires rushed out of the portal. She grabbed a piece of wood off one of the felled bookcases, while Jack did the same.

"The Origin of Evil will come through," shouted Omega from the other side of the room. "And you will serve him, Doctor."

"Think about what you're saying," coaxed the Doctor. "Think about what you're doing. Just think, Omega. This isn't you! You're a good person. You don't really want to hurt anybody."

"Oh, but I do," said Omega. "I want to hurt you." He advanced towards the Doctor, who was being hauled up onto the makeshift stage. "You said you wanted to help me, Doctor. And you're going to. That's my revenge. That's what you get for defying me."

The vampires circled Buffy and Jack, their evil chuckling and hissing their only communication. They weren't attacking, just circling them, eyeing them hungrily and occasionally snapping at them, as if hoping to frighten them.

Ha. As if.

"Oh, great," said Jack. "I'm guessing this is 'let's make sure the captives listen while we gloat' time."

"Screw that," said Buffy, and she slammed her stake into the nearest vampire's heart. The vampire turned to dust. She flipped out of the way of another vampire, then did a complex series of acrobatic movements to avoid three more. She staked a second one after she was done. Jack, beside her, was doing much the same. Although lacking in her grace and agility, he more than made up for it in determination.

Buffy struck out at another vampire, staking it easily. Weird thing was, these vampires didn't really seem to be fighting back. Not the way they should have been. Yeah, they were snapping their jaws and trying to kill her and stuff, but nothing like the vampires back in Sunnydale. The way they moved was almost… clumsy. They reminded Buffy of those seventies sci-fi robots on TV, the ones who could only move in jerks and starts. Puppets, Buffy thought. And the puppet-master's busy somewhere else. Which meant this was…

"It's a distraction," Buffy shouted at Jack. She looked over to the stage area, and sure enough, Omega was telling the Doctor something, quietly. Something, Buffy imagined, she wasn't supposed to hear. So she figured she'd better hear it. She managed to maneuver her way over towards where the Doctor was being held, but the closer she got to the stage area, the more difficult the vampires were to fight. Yeah, this was definitely a distraction for her and Jack.

Jack began charging through a group of vampires, trying to get to the stage, just the same way Buffy was. Except there was something weird about the way the vampires were attacking Jack. They… weren't. They were just shuffling around him. Herding him. Forcing him to run right into….

"Jack, don't!" shouted Buffy, as Jack collided with the portal.

The moment Jack touched the portal, it shimmered and glowed even brighter than before. The energy seemed to sizzle through Jack, as if electrocuting him, and he slumped over, dead. Buffy watched the portal as it spasmed, fearing for the worst. But then it shuddered, and with a sudden squelching sound, it sucked the last few groups of vampires back inside, then sealed tight, remaining a glowing ball of energy in the center of the room.

There were still nine vampires left where Buffy was standing. But even if these vampires were more coordinated than the ones she'd first encountered, in the end, they were still clockwork vampires. And those were easy. Buffy fought her way over to the stage area, staking three more vamps as she approached. Soon, she got close enough to hear what Omega was saying to the Doctor.

"…even her own mother," said Omega. "Her own mother, Doctor! So I kill off her mother, go back to see how Time's sorted itself out, only now, it's the plumber, who's come down there in response to an unknown person who has suddenly appeared on his doorstep, shouting about an emergency down in the sewers. And do you know what that plumber happens to be an expert in? CPR. And so on, and so on. Isn't that strange, Doctor? Isn't that bizarre, that everyone in that town just so happens to be an expert in CPR? That everyone in Sunnydale is just aching to go down into the sewers on Prom Night?"

They were talking about her, Buffy realized. About why she hadn't died yet. Buffy easily dodged a swipe from a vampire, then kicked it in the middle of its chest while staking another vamp at the same time. The first vampire stumbled backwards, into a broken table, and crumbled into dust.

"And after about half the town was gone, I finally, finally found out why she's still alive," said Omega. "Because after there was no one left in the town who would go down and revive Buffy, there was still someone. A medical student from London, sporting a mobile from 2008. And that was when I worked it out. Why the instability wasn't working. Why Buffy keeps surviving, despite the odds."

Buffy was thrown back by another vampire, towards the glowing portal-energy-thingy, but she managed to grab a column (that hadn't been there a few seconds ago), and swing around to kick the vampire in the face, instead. She reached for a stake, but the broken table had now disappeared. She darted over to the makeshift stage, which was now comprised of toppled chairs and other furniture, along with a few chalkboards and some bookcases. She grabbed a chair leg, and ran it through the vampire that was charging at her. She could see two vampires coming at her from opposite directions, and ducked just in time to make them both run into each other. She loved stupid vampires. She staked them both, easily.

"Because she's brilliant," said the Doctor. "A brilliant human being."

"It's because of you!" snapped Omega. "You, Doctor, going back in time, letting your companion convince the people of Sunnydale to learn CPR. Making sure that Xander Harris knew CPR. That's why the instability isn't working. Because the instability doesn't touch Time Lords, and, in the end, you're the only reason that Buffy Summers is still alive."


	23. Chapter 23

Buffy was so distracted by the conversation, she completely missed the vampire that was charging towards her. It was only when she smelled its foul breath on her neck that she realized it was there, and managed to counterbalance it, flip it over onto the (now tiled) floor, and staked it.

Now she was alone. No more vampires, no more distractions. Just the Doctor, Omega, and the way they were tearing her life apart.

How was she supposed to feel?

Grateful? She did feel that, thankful that the Doctor had helped her. Thankful she was still alive. Thankful that she'd gotten a lucky break, after so many unlucky ones, and that, for once, the Angel of Death had actually managed to help bring a Slayer back to life.

Betrayed. Because the Doctor had told her that he hadn't interfered, that he'd left her alone to live out her life. He should have let her know, right away. He should have told her.

Frustrated. Because if he was already around, why hadn't he gone out and saved her in person? If he'd just stepped out of the shadows, if he'd just introduced himself then — "I'm the Doctor, and I just saved your life" — maybe she wouldn't have tried to kill him when she'd first met him. Maybe she wouldn't have been so mistrustful of him, back in Sunnydale.

Angry. Because he could have done more. He should have done more. He'd stopped the Master before, in 1937. If he was already there, if he was already around, he should have stepped in and taken out the Master before anything had ever happened to Buffy. No — he should have stopped the Master right at the beginning, at the Harvest. He had a time machine. He'd have been able to do it.

"Course I have," said the Doctor. "Did it a few weeks back. Just looking out for a friend, you know."

Omega gave a chilling laugh. "You can't lie to me, Doctor," said Omega. "I can see right through you. You haven't even met the medical student in question, yet. This event is in your future. Her past, but your future. Which means that, actually, it hasn't really happened at all. What we're seeing now, the history that Buffy has lived up to this point, is just the peak point in the probability curve, the most likely outcome for what would happen, if you were to survive this experience." Omega grinned. "But I can fix that, Doctor."

"Listen to me, Omega," said the Doctor. "You don't have to do this."

"And don't think you'll regenerate," said Omega. "I've taken care of that. I was always the brains behind Rassilon's power. I can create regeneration debilitators that Rassilon could only dream of!"

"This isn't you, Omega," insisted the Doctor. "This is that thing in your head, talking. You can end this. You can make sure that Toby doesn't get out."

Omega leaned in a little closer to the Doctor. "But you haven't even heard the best part, yet," he said. He grinned, and whispered something into the Doctor's ear.

The Doctor lurched back, suddenly, violently, but the vampires held him fast.

"No!" he said. "You wouldn't!" He was staring at Omega, now, a wild look in his eyes, and he began frantically struggling to free himself.

"You can't stop him, Doctor," shouted Omega. "He's coming, and you will serve him!"

"Omega, listen to me!" the Doctor shouted back. "You can't do this! You know you can't do this! You know what this means for the universe!"

The group of vampires cackled evilly to themselves. Then they pushed the Doctor down onto the makeshift stage, and descended upon him.


	24. Chapter 24

Buffy grabbed a… something wooden off whatever the hell was piled up to make Omega's stage area now (doors, maybe?), and darted forward, trying to scramble up the pile fast enough to get there in time. She was doing this all on instinct, not even bothering to think. Because if she started thinking too much about this, it was all going to get crazy confusing in her head, and she just… had to take out Omega. Yes. That's what she had to do. Take out the puppet-master. If she took out the puppet-master, the vampires would go away, the Doctor would be fine, and Toby wouldn't get out. Then she could make herself temporally stable, and go back to worrying about normal teenage things like what kind of stake to bring to a fight, or how best to convince your teacher that the machete in your backpack is just a really big letter opener. That made sense to Buffy, or at least, it made about as much sense as anything else.

Buffy climbed.

Above her, the Doctor was dying. Buffy knew this because she could already see the effects. The clouds that made up Omega's body were beginning to solidify, his flesh was taking on hints of color, his eyes were becoming more pronounced in his face. The swirling ball of energy began to expand again, and even though no vampires came out of it this time, Buffy could feel something else seeping out, something on the edges of her awareness.

It felt like… death. Like hate. Like despair. It felt like that final rainstorm that breaks after an already rotten day. Like that final life that flickers out when you thought the battle was already over. Like that final look in Angel's eyes, after Buffy had sentenced him to Hell.

Omega paced the stage, watching the Doctor die. His eyes shone with a cold bitterness, his face twisted into an angry snarl. He began muttering to himself, his voice raspy and ill defined. He dug into a pocket and revealed what looked like a gun, although it was like no gun that Buffy had ever seen. Omega cocked it, and aimed at the Doctor. "You have to die!" he nearly screamed.

"Get away from him, Omega," said Buffy, as she climbed to the top of the stage.

Omega ignored her, but her arrival made him hesitate, just a fraction of a second. That was all Buffy needed.

She ran at Omega.

Buffy tackled the shadowy figure to the ground, the gun dropping out of his hand as his back hit the makeshift stage. He looked up at her, with terrified eyes. "No!" he shouted. "You have to let me do this! You don't understand!"

Buffy kicked out, pushing the gun away, making it clatter down the — stacked up tables, now, it looked like — that comprised the makeshift stage. "I understand that you're working for something you keep calling the Origin of Evil. In my book, that makes you someone who needs to die."

Omega glared at her, and in an impressive feat of strength, he managed to knock her over, throwing her heavily against the tables. He then ran towards the Doctor, breaking one of the table legs off in his hand as he went.

"I have to kill him!" Omega cried. "I have to!"

Buffy lunged at him, catching him by an ankle, making him stumble and fall, face first, onto a table. Buffy dragged him away from the Doctor, Omega struggling against her grip. The ankle felt cold and damp beneath Buffy's fingers. It felt as if she were trying to grip quickly melting ice. Omega swerved his ankle to kick her in the chin, but she dodged the blow and used his clumsy attack to her advantage, pinning his arms by his sides and trapping him against the makeshift stage. Omega clawed at Buffy, wriggling beneath her grip.

A high-pitched cry leaked into Omega's voice — a tone that Buffy recognized from earlier. The Shadow-Doctor.

"Can't let it win!" shouted the Shadow-Doctor. "It's strong. Too strong. Can't hold it back. We'll lose, we're losing, we're already lost!" By the end of the declaration, the voice had modulated back to Omega's natural deep growl, and Buffy wondered just how much of Omega was actually this Shadow-Doctor, and how much was Omega. And how much was something else.

He faked her out. If she'd been paying more attention to him and less to his crazy schizophrenic condition, Buffy would have caught it straight away. But he made her think that he was going to roll away, when he actually kicked out at her stomach. Buffy felt the air knocked out of her lungs as her grip faltered, and Omega slipped out of her hold, trying to get to his feet.

Buffy flipped back up to face him. She turned to pick up some weapon from the makeshift stage, but found that the stage was now made from large metal tables. They were pretty slippery, too. Omega, not being quite all there, didn't seem to be having as big a problem with this as Buffy. Buffy used the momentum of her fall to launch herself at Omega. But Omega used the frictionless surfaces to his advantage, too. Just before Buffy could reach him, Omega slipped down a steel table, towards the Doctor. Buffy rushed to cut him off, and managed to slide just in front of his foot so that he tripped across her.

Buffy grabbed an arm, hoisting him to his feet. He looked into her eyes, desperation written across his face.

"You heard what the Doctor told me," Omega said, his voice oscillating between his own voice and that of the Shadow-Doctor. "I have to… I'm the only one… it's my fault it got through! I have to make sure…" He bent double, his free hand in his newly-blond hair. "I have to kill the Doctor!"

"You know, I've fought some seriously disturbed villains before," said Buffy. "But you take the cake. I'd say you need a psychiatrist, but you're way past that."

Omega jumped forward, making Buffy trip over a wooden ridge of a bookshelf that hadn't been there a few seconds ago. Buffy fell. Stupid temporally unstable environment. Buffy looked up to find Omega darting towards — the Doctor, of course. She threw a book at Omega, and it hit him in the lower back, causing him to stumble. But he kept going, and Buffy chased him.

Omega stopped as he arrived by the group of vampires who were feeding on the Doctor. He cried out, cradling his head in his hands. "Get away from me," he said, backing up. "You're not real. You're not real!"

Buffy thought she could see a hint of something just beyond Omega — or maybe it was nothing. It kept waving in and out of focus, just as the Hellmouth had, back when Buffy was trying to disable the bomb. It was a group of people — more than Buffy could even count — all attired in ornately decorated robes, with large collars and giant hats. They were shouting at Omega in a language Buffy didn't understand, but it was clear from Omega's reaction that he could. And he was terrified of them.

Omega took another step backwards, and Buffy caught him, twisting his arm behind his back. His arms felt more solid, slightly warmer, the shadows around his flesh fading away to nothing. As soon as Buffy caught Omega, the robed figures vanished, their voices becoming nothing but a hard, cold, tangible silence.

Through the silence, Buffy heard one single, raspy, hardly there voice from nearby. It was… the Doctor.

Geeze, even while he was having his throat torn open, the Doctor kept trying to reason with this nutcase. That's the sign of someone who's seriously devoted to the whole talking-out-problems philosophy.

"…your last chance," wheezed the Doctor. He was trying his hardest to make the words clear, but the task was far too taxing. "You have to go back, Omega. You have to seal… the rift."

"No!" shouted Omega, utter panic and desperation coloring his voice. "You can't send me back! You can't make me go! You can't sentence me to a life with that… that… thing!"

"You're… sentencing… the… universe…" said the Doctor. Then he broke off, coughing violently and rasping for breath.

Omega looked back at Buffy, as she tightened her grip. "I have to kill him," he pleaded.

"Fat chance," said Buffy, maneuvering him away from the Doctor. "Now fix this, and you might live to see tomorrow."

"You don't understand!" cried Omega. "It's not me. I'm not the one —"

Omega never finished. He was knocked out of Buffy's hands by one of the vampires that had previously been feasting on the Doctor, which now rushed, headlong, towards Buffy. She could see the Doctor's reddish-orangey blood dripping down his fangs. Okay, that was pretty gross. Buffy ducked out of the way — but _this_ was not a clockwork vampire. No, this one was _fast_! The vampire slammed into Buffy, seizing her and preparing to bite into her neck. Buffy squirmed and writhed, trying to release the vampire's hold, trying to counterbalance him or catch him off his guard. It wasn't working. Then, suddenly, for no apparent reason, the vampire screamed, and jerked away from her. Buffy stepped back. She realized, with sudden amazement, that the vampire had touched the pocket where she'd been keeping the TARDIS key. Oh, yeah. That's right. Angel had flinched away at the very sight of it. It was like a super-mega-cross type thing. Buffy took out the key, and waved it in front of the vampire. The vampire seemed to shrink back, away from it. Away from her.

Boo-yah! Feel the power of one tiny, Yale key!

But Buffy didn't have time to celebrate. She had to deal with Omega. She turned to find him huddled on the pile of red bricks that now comprised the stage. She caught his wrist, twisting his arm back around and tackling him to the ground. And it was fairly clear to both of them that the fight was over.

Buffy dug into her pocket, replacing the TARDIS key with a knife that had randomly appeared in there. She held it against Omega's not-completely-there-yet throat.

"Fix this," said Buffy. "Or you die."

Omega laughed at her. It wasn't an evil villain laugh. It was a hysterical, half-sobbing laugh, and Buffy almost felt sorry for him, for a moment.

"Too late," said Omega, between sob-laughs. "Too late, too late, too late."

Buffy smacked Omega across the face. "Get those vampires to release the Doctor," she demanded.

"I'm not the one controlling them," said Omega. "I'm the distraction."

Buffy hesitated, her grip on Omega lessening. "What?"

"You should have let me kill him," said Omega. "He needed to die. Really die. The Evil — it might have come through, it might have destroyed the Earth, but at least it would have lost what it wanted. Things would have been better in the long run."

"What are you talking about?" asked Buffy.

"The Origin of All Evil will come through, and you won't be able to stop it," said Omega, but he wasn't gloating. No, that fear in his voice — he was warning her, Buffy realized. Had he been warning her all along? "Not anymore. Not once it achieves its goal."

"Goal?" asked Buffy.

"To reshape reality from the inside out," said Omega. "It wants the Key. And there's only one corporeal being in the universe who can obtain it."

Something the Doctor had said popped into Buffy's head — an energy source with enough power to reshape reality from the inside out, one that could shatter the universe and rebuild it from scratch. The Doctor had never said what it was, or where it was. But he knew. He was the one person who knew. The one person who could get it. And it became clear to Buffy, suddenly.

Buffy was the way in.

But the Doctor was the one that Toby really wanted.


	25. Chapter 25

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The image of the dress made out of time is copyrighted me! I wrote it in a poem back in college (one about subatomic particles and electrons) and I liked it, so I stole it from myself and shoved it into this story.
> 
> The sad thing is, I actually described better in 89 words (the poem) what it took me over 60,000 words to describe in this story. That's really, really frustrating.
> 
> Oh, well. Enjoy!

Buffy wasn't sure what to do. She shook Omega. "Fix it!" she demanded, trying not to panic.

Omega looked over at the Doctor, and there was something so tired in his face, something so weary, something which showed how long Omega had been fighting back against this thing. Single-handedly making sure that Toby didn't enter the universe, despite all the odds.

"Negatively charged regenerative energy," said Omega. "From the antimatter universe. It can get rid of the vampires, undo some of the damage. I can give the universe a chance. But you have to save it, Buffy Summers. You're the only one who can. The Doctor — he'll listen to you."

"What?" asked Buffy. "Why?"

Omega gripped her hand in his, the one that was holding the knife. Buffy tried, instinctively, to get the knife away from him, but he was stronger than she'd thought, and his grip held firm. He moved the knife (and Buffy's hand) away from his throat, and towards his rightmost heart.

"Promise me," said Omega, gripping Buffy's hand more tightly. "Promise me you'll save it."

"I… promise," said Buffy, without really knowing what she was promising.

Omega gave her a sad, weary smile, and then plunged the knife into his own chest.

Buffy could feel Omega's not-completely-there-yet skin beneath her left hand, which was still pinning him to the ground, as his skin grew hotter and hotter, gray mist swirling out around it. Buffy yanked her hands away, as his flesh began to scorch her.

She stood up, staring, not sure what was going on. Was this a good thing? A bad thing? Omega's skin was completely covered by a soft, gray, shimmering light. It was so intense and bright, so hot, that Buffy felt as if she were melting.

Buffy backed away, and looked over at the Doctor.

He'd stopped moving, one hand dangling, lifelessly, across a steel panel. Omega had said, before. Omega had said that the Origin of Evil was coming through, and the Doctor would serve him. That the Doctor would help whether he wanted to or not. And the way that the Doctor had reacted to whatever it was that Omega had whispered — it had to be bad. Buffy didn't know what Omega had said. All she knew was that she needed to get the Doctor out of there, now.

She ran towards the Doctor, just as Omega exploded into white light.

The light lashed out, across the entire room, and the force of it was strong enough to throw Buffy onto the — they felt like something wooden, now — that comprised the makeshift stage. Buffy's eyes stung, and she covered her face with her arm, as the light flowed across her. She could feel something inside her head. It was as if she were being wrapped in a blanket of time — no, as if she were dancing in it, her long, flowing skirt made from its intricate layers and patterns, her shirt woven with its memories. She was two people at once, living two lives at once. And she was watching as all the murky time around her was swept away, all those partial-timelines, all those truncated-timelines, all those events that never, ever happened. She could feel people returning to her, people that had been lost when she'd been unstable. Giles. Willow. Xander. Angel. She could feel them being added, woven into the fabric of her dress, as she danced across the universe. And Buffy opened a pair of eyes she didn't know she'd closed, and she could see.

The entire world looked as if it was covered in a white gauze. The air seemed to shimmer with potentials and probabilities as the rich, steamy scent of pure time wafted into her nose. Buffy looked around, at the vampires surrounding the Doctor, screaming as the white light washed across them, making them crumble into ash. At the Doctor, gasping for breath, blood pooling from his neck, his arms, his chest — everywhere the vampires had bitten him. At Omega, who was crying out, in triumph, as he continued to explode into that white light.

Seriously, when had this thing gone from being the easiest apocalypse aversion ever to the apocalypse aversion where no one stays on the same side for two seconds and nothing makes sense? Buffy was never going to take Sunnydale for granted again. At least in Sunnydale, she knew where she stood. Vamps? Bad. Demons? Bad. Giles and the Scoobies? Good. None of this crazy, schizophrenic not-knowing-what-side-someone's-on thing. Well, not on the good days.

There was a loud crack behind Buffy, and she whirled around, just in time to see the white light from Omega's explosion strike the ball of energy in the center of the room. The ball pulsed and wobbled, spinning around faster and faster, as it became smaller and smaller. The world screamed around her, as a gust of wind that came out of nowhere suddenly picked up and roared in Buffy's ears.

As the portal compressed, it began drawing Omega further and further inside. His voice faded away, as he was sucked back through the portal, and it squelched closed behind him.

And with a zap, Buffy found that she was back where she'd been before. Fallen across the makeshift stage, her arm still covering her eyes. She got up, and looked around.

It was daytime. Sunlight poured through the windows near the top of the room. The room itself was trashed, the bookcases that Buffy was standing on all smashed up and fractured. But there was no portal, no energy. Nothing out of the ordinary.

Normal.

Buffy knew, inside her head, without anyone having to tell her, that she was back to normal. That everything was back to normal. Omega was gone. The portal was gone. Sunnydale was just the way it had been before. Even Angel was still there. Everything was just the way she'd wanted it.

Except it wasn't.

Because there was something wrong, and Buffy could feel it in her Slayer senses. As if something were about to happen. Something really, really, really bad.

"Buffy…" came a voice from her right.

Buffy looked up, and there was the Doctor, trembling on top of the toppled bookcases, his reddish-orangey blood pooling around him. Except this blood… it wasn't singing in the same way it had been back in Sunnydale. There was something too flat about it. Something too dull and lifeless. And something else was wrong. Because… the Doctor…

He'd called her Buffy.


	26. Chapter 26

Buffy ran over to the Doctor, leaning across him to check his pulse. It was still there, that same double pulse that she'd felt before, thinner and threadier, but still present. She was about to pull away, to try to patch up the puncture wounds across his body, but the Doctor grabbed her by the wrists, and placed her hands on either side of his chest. She could feel the beating of each heart beneath her palms. And suddenly, Buffy realized what he wanted her to do. She realized why he had called her Buffy.

There was a terrible thud in Buffy's heart, a sort of gnawing disappointment, that extra little something that said, _See? This is why you don't get close to people. Because every time you get attached to someone, they wind up dying._ And of course this would happen. Of course she would have to kill him. This was what Buffy did.

In the end, she wasn't Elizabeth. She was just the Slayer.

Buffy took her hands away, feeling dead inside. "You're becoming a vampire," she said, flatly.

"Not… that simple," gasped the Doctor. "Revenge. Toby, I… destroyed his body…, so he's decided… to take mine."

"Great," said Buffy. "So, you're not becoming a vampire. You're becoming the Devil Incarnate." She didn't even want to feel any emotions right now. She just kept asking herself why she'd thought this would be any different.

A cool hand took hers, gently, as if trying to lend her some comfort. She met the Doctor's worried eyes. He was dying, being turned evil from the inside out and asking her to kill him, and he was still worried about her. That didn't help. It didn't help at all.

"B-B-Buffy?" asked the Doctor.

Buffy snapped.

She jerked her hand away, got to her feet, and stomped backwards. "Stop calling me that!" she shouted.

The Doctor tried to reply to this, but instead fell into a coughing fit. The sight just made Buffy even angrier.

"You think you can just do that to people?" she demanded. "You think you can just show up in someone's life, tell her that she can be better than she is, that she doesn't have to kill stuff to survive, and then ask her to slit your throat? Because you can't. You can't just give me hope like that and then snatch it away. It's cruel. It's heartless!"

Buffy would have gone on, but the Doctor gave a faint cry, and suddenly clutched his head, gritting his teeth and shutting his eyes. He curled in on himself, shaking.

Buffy rushed forward, chiding herself for losing her temper. She had to stop with this teenage angst stuff. This was her destiny. She wasn't Elizabeth Summers. She was Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Her job, the only way to save the universe, was to kill the Doctor. It didn't matter if she hated doing it. It didn't matter if killing him would hurt her, somewhere deep down inside her soul. None of her feelings or emotions mattered. This was just what she had to do.

How much time did she have left?

The Doctor's skin was growing warm, clammy. He was breaking out in a sweat, and his face was flushed red. He was… running a fever, Buffy realized. Which was weird, because Buffy was pretty sure that wasn't how vampire transformations were supposed to work. Was this some special Devil-Transformation thing? Was he going to suddenly sprout horns and start laughing at her maniacally?

"That's not…" started Buffy. She swallowed, then tried again. "I mean, when do I have to do this?"

"Trying… to fight," said the Doctor, through gritted teeth. "Can't let it…" He curled in on himself even tighter, as the pain spread across his face. "It's strong," he muttered. He cracked open his eyes, looking at Buffy, and she could see the fear radiating through his corneas. He clutched at her, desperately, and it took Buffy nearly a minute to realize that the Doctor was trying to get to his feet.

"TARDIS," said the Doctor.

Buffy stared at him, incredulous. "If you think I'm going to let the future Devil Incarnate have access to a time machine, you've got another thing coming. I'm not letting you anywhere near that thing."

The Doctor looked at her with pleading eyes. "C-cure," he managed to get out, before he doubled up again, clutching his head in pain.

A cure.

Something ignited inside of Buffy, some little spark of hope that had gone out. A cure. Of course. Jack had told her that the Doctor had worked out a way to turn vampires human again. If he was able to do that, he could surely just use the same stuff on himself, to make sure he survived this. Would it perform a full-on exorcism, too, or would it just rid his body of the vampiric element?

"Would that work?" asked Buffy.

The Doctor raised his head, and gave her a weak grin. "Told… you," he gasped. "I'm… brilliant."

The familiar arrogance and sheer stubborn pig-headed optimism of the statement made Buffy feel better. Like she could believe that the Doctor was still there. Like she could believe that this was not really the end. Like she could believe that he might survive this.

She helped the Doctor to his feet, and he leaned against her, as she half-carried him down the bookcase-stage. He kept stumbling, his body seizing up in starts and fits as he made his way, his face growing redder and more feverish with every step. Buffy could feel his double pulse racing beneath her fingertips, as his body tried its hardest not to die.

"You're fighting it," Buffy realized. "The vampirism. Your body's fighting it like it's a virus."

"Regeneration impossible," said the Doctor. "Omega... helped. Gave me some… reserves. A chance to… fight the infection. Not enough." He cried out, nearly falling, but Buffy was quick, and she caught him. "In my mind," he said to Buffy. "Can't… let… him…." He gave a fierce growl, as if trying to fend off a wild animal.

Buffy nearly tripped across Jack's still-dead body, lying in the center of the room. Her eyes suddenly lit up. "Jack!" said Buffy. "He can help you. He's smart, and stuff. He can run back to the TARDIS and get you anything you want."

The Doctor shook his head. "Energy… field… zapped… short-term memory," explained the Doctor. "No time. Must… TARDIS… quickly…"

Buffy gave a last look at Jack, then helped the Doctor out of the room.

They walked slowly, far more slowly than Buffy thought they should, considering the urgency with which her Slayer senses were assaulting her. She remembered what she'd asked Jack, back in the cell. Was this what Omega had meant about the Doctor destroying 66% of Earth's population? Was that Omega's way of warning them about what was to come, about Toby's real plans? Buffy looked ahead, into a bleak future where she would spend the rest of her days trying to stay two steps ahead of an entirely evil entity that was just as fast, quick-witted, and strong as she was. Someone who knew every single weakness of the Slayer, who had seen the way that every one of them was defeated. Someone who knew everything about her, even the way she'd react to situations she'd never encountered in this timeline. He knew everything about everything, Ackerly had said. The past, present, and future. Every legendary lost object, every secret of the universe, he knew. Was that her future, then? Struggling to defend the universe from someone who could crush it so easily?

Except it wouldn't come down to that. Because the moment the Doctor changed, the moment he became a vampire (or the devil or whatever), Buffy would be there. Ready to stop him. And after they had fought, after they had faced off against each other, only one of them would be left standing. Either Buffy would kill the Doctor, or he'd kill her.

No. Cure, Buffy. There's a cure. It's not going to come to any of this. This time, this one time, she was going to save the universe without having to kill anyone.

The moment they emerged into the daylight, Buffy expected the Doctor to shudder away from the sun. But the Doctor seemed completely unaffected by it, as if he didn't even notice that they'd emerged from the building. His pulse was erratic, but both hearts were still beating. All good signs, Buffy thought.

"You're not burning up in the sunlight, yet," said Buffy, trying to be encouraging. She wasn't very good at it. "So… yeah. That's something."

"Won't… burn up," the Doctor corrected. "Ever." His voice was raspy, almost lost beneath the roar of nearby traffic. "One… sun. Body… designed… for two."

Buffy felt her breath catch in her throat. Oh, she hadn't thought about that. The vampires she'd faced had always been transformed humans. The Doctor wasn't human. When he turned, not only would he know her every weakness, but she'd know none of his.

And if he ever got his hands on that thing that could reshape reality, then Buffy would be completely screwed over.

The Doctor took Buffy's hand. The gesture was clearly supposed to be comforting, but because of the Doctor's rapidly weakening condition, it was more of a death-grip than a reassuring pat. "98%," said the Doctor. "Genes are… 98%... similar…" He winced at some great pain inside his head, and Buffy caught him as he nearly crumpled to the ground. "Time Lord… and… vampire," he clarified.

If the Doctor was right, if he had most of the genetics of a vampire already, then everything Buffy knew about vampires wouldn't apply. Sunlight, crosses, garlic… as far as Buffy could make out, none of these would have the least effect on him. Unless the Earth happened to get another sun in the next hour, or Buffy could find some kind of super-mega-cross or something…

Hang on.

Buffy fished out the TARDIS key from her pocket. Super-mega-cross. She remembered thinking that, earlier. She showed it to the Doctor.

He winced away from it, instinctively.

When he realized what he'd done, a sudden raw fear burned inside his eyes, and he reached out for the key, his fingers brushing along its surface as if he were stroking a lover. A lover whose very touch burned him, hurt him. Buffy could see how every discomfort he experienced from the key pained him, emotionally, as if he were watching himself losing those essential pieces of his own personality that had kept him sane throughout the centuries.

He snatched the key out of Buffy's hand, and clung to it, desperately. Buffy could see that the action was not pleasant, but that he felt he needed to do it. As if it were the most important thing in the world.

Buffy found the car that Jack had driven over to the Watchers Council. She kicked in one of the windows, and unlocked the doors, helping the Doctor into the passenger seat. He was still shaking, his eyes closed and his teeth gritted as he tried to fight some fierce internal battle. By now, his skin was even warmer than Buffy's, but he looked as if he were freezing. He was huddled into his suit jacket as if trying to suck the warmth from it, occasionally shivering violently. His hearts were beating far too rapidly. Buffy wasn't sure how long it would be before one of them gave out.

She had to hurry. He wasn't going to make it much longer.

Buffy ducked into the driver's seat, reached for the keys — then realized she didn't have them. Damn. Did she dare to dart back inside, and try to find them on Jack's lifeless corpse? Or, worse, if Jack had woken up, and didn't remember what had happened or who she was, would she risk trying to take them off of him?

But it was out of the question. She couldn't leave the Doctor. She was afraid that if she wasn't there the moment the change happened, the moment he turned, she'd lose her chance to kill him. It was the only thing she could think of, the only advantage she had. That perhaps, the moment he turned, the Doctor would be weak. Vulnerable. If she missed that moment, he'd kill her. Or just run off and get that mega-super-weapon he'd hidden. The one that could shatter the universe and rebuild it from the inside out. Using the Devil Incarnate as the architect. Yeah, Buffy wasn't leaving the Doctor alone for a second.

There was a buzz, and the car sprang into motion. Buffy glanced over, and found that the Doctor had taken out the sonic screwdriver, pointing it at the car. Buffy took a deep breath, then pulled into traffic.

She very nearly swiped the side mirror off of a nearby car as she realized that she was checking the wrong blind spot. Stupid London, driving on the wrong side of the road. Now, where was the TARDIS, again?

"Steel," said the Doctor, suddenly speaking very quickly, very quietly. "Not wood. Steel. Got to be steel. Steel bolt through both hearts. That's the only way it'll work."

Buffy realized, with a sickening feeling in her stomach, that he was telling her how to kill him. That he was instructing her, as if he'd given up himself.

"Black hole would do it, too," said the Doctor. "Or a beheading. Long as it's quick. Advanced regenerative capabilities. I'll be able to regenerate any part of my body at will. Did it… last… Christmas…. Rose…" He began panting again, his breath becoming heavy and labored. He swallowed, and continued, at his previous rapid speed. "Once I'm dead, destroy the corpse, immediately. Anything that's left, anything whatsoever, should be completely immolated. Not one strand of my DNA should survive, or else this will all be for nothing. I've seen the Master pull off this kind of thing too many times. Do you understand?"

"Why are you telling me this?" asked Buffy. "Once you're dead, you can't go back in time and save my life. I'll pop out of existence. Or I won't, and Toby will get through anyways."

The Doctor gave a sudden yelp of pain, and dropped the TARDIS key onto the floor of the car. There was a red mark on his palm, a key-sized red mark, as if the imprint of that key had been branded onto his flesh. One last lingering sign of his old life.

The Doctor crumpled over in the seat. "Buffy," he whispered, desperately. (Her name sounded dry and papery in his mouth.) "Help. Me. Please."

Buffy nodded. She felt her hands clutching the steering wheel a little tighter. "Okay," she said.

The Doctor shivered, violently, then continued in his rapid, soft voice. "The TARDIS and I have a symbiotic link," he said. "So don't rely on her for any favors after I turn. Whatever you do, whatever happens, don't let me leave the planet." He handed her the sonic screwdriver, and she took it, nearly colliding with a car to her left as she accidentally swerved into the lane next to her. She put the screwdriver in her pocket, then swerved back into the correct lane.

"Setting 522 will lock the coordinates for the TARDIS permanently," said the Doctor. "The TARDIS will be able to fly between here and Sunnydale, and that's it."

"If I strand you here," said Buffy, carefully, "I'm dooming this world."

"And if you let me loose, you'll be dooming the universe," said the Doctor. "Once I leave the planet, once I leave this time-zone, you'll never be able to stop me. Every evil thought I've ever had, every vengeful fantasy I've entertained will be unleashed upon the universe tenfold. I'll shatter the laws of time, turn cause and effect upside down, tear open the void to make sure I get what I want. And with the Key, with the power to completely remake the universe… you wouldn't even want to imagine what I could do. A universe where nothing could or would exist without my approval. A universe where my voice would be the final decision. A universe where laws of time would mean nothing, where I could redo anything until I got the result I wanted. Multiple timelines, overlapping timelines. Second chances. I could save who I want, destroy who I want, and I could get it right. I'd know, ahead of time, I'd be able to do things properly. Sift through my personal timeline and fix all of my mistakes. I could stop the War. Bring back all those dead companions. All those lost companions. Rose! I could get Rose back! And with the Key, if I could use the Key, do you understand what could happen? I wouldn't have to keep wandering from planet to planet, helping in whatever small way I could. I could do it all at once. Rebuild the universe the way it was supposed to be. No more Daleks. No more Cybermen. No more Slytheen or Sycorax or Krillitane. No more Rassilon. No more Torchwood. No more Watchers Council. I'd bring back that little baby Time Lord, let her have a life. And all those innocent teenage girls who died, all those Slayers I couldn't save, I could rescue them, too. No, I don't need to stop there. I could make sure they lived the lives they were supposed to. I could make sure nothing ever threatened them again. Spike. The Master. Kakistos. Lothos. Everyone who ever threatened you, Buffy, everyone who ever mistreated you or tried to hurt you. This destiny of yours, I could change that. No more manipulators, no more people controlling you. Giles? Gone! Shadow Men? Out! I could destroy all the Watchers, eliminate every single one of them. There would be no more Slayer, no institutionalized slaughter. I could give you the life you deserve. I could make you an ordinary teenager. You could live past the age of 20. No, not just that. You could live forever. All my friends could live forever. I wouldn't ever have to lose them. I wouldn't have to lose anyone. I could make sure they stayed, make sure they were always there with me. Why didn't I think of any of this before? I've spent all this time feeling sorry for myself, being miserable and alone, but I don't have to do that! Why just stop Rassilon? I could become Rassilon! It could be my Web of Time, my hand causing the rise and fall of empires, my hand creating and uncreating worlds. I could do anything! Rewrite every law of the universe." He clutched at her bare arm. "And you, Elizabeth! I could have you, as well! You'd be right there, helping me. The future, what we saw — it doesn't have to matter anymore, as long as you stayed. And you would stay, this time, I know you would. You'd have to. I'd make sure you'd never, ever leave."

Buffy slammed on the brakes, suddenly. The Doctor was thrown forward, caught by the seatbelt, and he took in a sharp breath.

It was the first breath he'd taken in the last ten minutes.

"Stop. It. Now." Buffy was almost growling, her hands turning white on the steering wheel. "I don't want to hear about your perfect universe. The one where you keep all your so-called 'friends' hostage and wipe out anyone that looks at you funny. The one where no one and nothing could survive unless it met with your approval. I don't care if you're planning to rule the universe, Doctor. I don't care if you wind up with ultimate power over everything. You can't make me be your slave, no matter what. You can't control me like that. It's my life, Doctor. And I refuse."

For a moment there was nothing but silence. Nothing but the angry honking of horns on the road around them, the skid of car brakes and tires nearby, and the rumble of the engine as it echoed through the car's interior. Buffy prepared herself for what was coming next. She was ready for it. This was the fight she'd been waiting for, the fight that would end with one of them dying, the fight that would decide the fate of the universe.

"Left," said the Doctor, quietly, his hand falling back to his side.

Buffy blinked. "What?"

"You're driving on the wrong side of the road," said the Doctor. "It's left in the UK. Not right."

Buffy took a deep breath that was almost a sigh. Okay, not a demon, yet. Good. She must have… talked him down or something. What had Omega said? That he'd listen to her. And the Doctor had. Why? But she couldn't worry about that, now. If she just kept talking to him, the way he'd talked to her back in the graveyard when they'd first met, if she could convince him to stop….

Buffy eased her foot off the brake pedal, and swerved back into the correct lane. She glanced over at the Doctor. His skin was now growing pale, very pale. His injuries were healing far faster than they should have been. His hand still bore the scorch mark of that TARDIS key. He was dying, he was transforming. But he hadn't, yet. He was still breathing. And Buffy could see his chest moving, as his hearts beat.

Heart, Buffy corrected. Because there was only one heart beating, now. The other had shut down.

"No more fantasies about taking over the universe?" Buffy checked.

The Doctor shook his head. Then he cringed, as if at a sudden pain, somewhere so deep inside that it was threatening to tear him apart. "Not going to make it," he said. "You've got to kill me." He looked up at her. "Buffy Summers. You have to. Kill me."

And there was something about the way he said her name — every syllable cold and icy in his mouth, every tone laced with some deep-seated malevolence and hatred — that told Buffy that killing him would be the worst possible thing she could do.

"No," she said, firmly.

"You have to —" He cut off this next plea with a sharp cry, as he held his head in his hands. "Hurts," he whispered. "Every single day. It hurts."

Buffy hesitated. The Doctor was battling this Evil-Devil-Toby-Whatever for his soul and mind. One wrong word, one wrong question from Buffy, and she could destroy his soul forever. Was this one of those things that Buffy should be yelling at him about, or encouraging him about? Or should she just tell him to shut up while she tried to figure out how the hell to get back to the TARDIS?

"What hurts?" she asked, finally.

"She's gone," said the Doctor. His voice was almost a whimper. "I lost her. And it hurts! It hurts so much!" His hands trembled. "I can't ever see her again. I can't ever speak to her again. I burned up a sun just to say goodbye. And I never told her… I never said…." Unshed tears dangled in the bottoms of his eyes. "She told me she loved me. And I'll never be able to say it to her. She's gone, universes away, and there's no chance I'll ever be able to see her again. Why, why, why? Why do I always lose them? I just tried to do it right this time, Elizabeth. I only wanted another chance."

Oh. He must be talking about Rose. The mysterious Rose, the one that Jack was so worried about, the one that was absent, the one person that the Doctor _had_ , actually, fallen in love with.

And that gave Buffy an idea. If moralistic kids books had taught her anything, this would work. It had to work.

"Tell me about Rose," said Buffy.

There was a terrible look on the Doctor's face. One that showed every emotion he'd kept hidden from her before, one that showed every ounce of pain, anger, and desperation. And Buffy knew that he had only kept these things hidden, because if they got out, if they consumed him, he would do something unspeakably terrible.

"She fell," said the Doctor. Buffy could hear the agony and torment in his voice, that terrible, gut wrenching anger, bitterness, and grief that colored every word. "Towards the void. I couldn't reach her. I —"

"No," said Buffy, cutting in, quickly. "Don't tell me about how you lost her. Tell me about Rose, the person."

The Doctor stopped. He said nothing. Then he took a breath. A long, steady breath.

"Rose," he began, and there was something in the way he said it that was beautiful, as if the name itself was enough to give him strength. "She was — no, is — brilliant. Beautiful. Fantastic. Selfless, brave, determined. One of the very best this universe has to offer. I sent her away, I wanted her to be safe. But she always came back. Once even absorbed the time vortex to do it. Imagine that. The time vortex, the power of time itself, and all she wanted to do was help me. Save everyone. Save the world. Preserve time and space. And she's so wonderfully human. Alive and vibrant and caring and just bursting with potential. We battled some of the worst monsters this universe has to offer, and she still always took time to make sure the innocent bystanders were all right. She always took that extra bit of time to reassure the kids, to make sure that those around her were strong, determined, united. She's that smile that lights up your day, that ray of sunshine that bursts through the clouds. The kind of person who could even sympathize with a Dalek."

There was a steady rhythm to his breathing, now. His hands had stopped shaking. A dash of color had crept back into his cheeks.

"And clever, oh, she was so clever," he continued. "Worked it all out before I ever could. Every time. Worked me out, too. Every time I needed her, she was there. Every time I couldn't face the universe alone, she was there. Always beside me, always ready to hold my hand and save the day. She could read everything I never told her, everything I never said. She just knew. She always knew. She saved me… in so many ways. She helped me become… the Doctor, again. Just like you, Elizabeth. Just like you told me, back in Romania!"

Buffy blinked. "Wait, just like I told you wh—?"

But the Doctor gasped, suddenly, trying, desperately to suck at the air. He hit his hand against the right side of his chest, frantically, but his movements seemed weak, feeble. His last heart was no longer beating. Buffy gripped the wheel with her right hand, then thumped him as hard as she could with her left, exactly where he'd shown her his rightmost heart was, earlier. He collapsed onto the car seat, sucking in air desperately.

"Toby," gasped the Doctor. "He's given up on my mind. Started in on my body. If he can stop that completely, if he lets the toxin win—"

"Toxin?" asked Buffy. She felt stupid the moment the question left her mouth. "Oh, the vampire thing."

"—then the mental block falls into place. No conscience. He'll have my mind as well," finished the Doctor. His voice was sounding weaker with every word. He clutched at the car, trying to steady himself. Then he peered out the windshield. "Turn right."

Buffy changed lanes, to do what he said.

"Other right," said the Doctor, as he noticed that she'd just positioned herself to turn left.

Buffy swerved the car across three lanes of traffic, very nearly getting into at least two fatal collisions, and then ran a red light to turn right. Stupid British traffic. It wasn't Buffy's fault if the right-hand turn wasn't actually the easy turn like it was supposed to be.

"Stop!" shouted the Doctor.

Buffy screeched on the brakes, and the car halted, suddenly. The car behind her, none too happy about this, began honking. Buffy turned off the engine. There, to her right, was the TARDIS.

"How'd you know?" asked Buffy to the Doctor.

The Doctor looked at the buildings surrounding them. "The Powell Estates," he said, as if this explained everything.

Then he doubled up, clutching at his stomach area, groaning in pain. "Body's shutting down," he said. "Got to get into the…"

His voice abruptly ceased, as his lungs began to give out.

Buffy darted out of the car, dragging the Doctor along with her. She fumbled under the passenger seat, trying to find the small, TARDIS key he'd dropped earlier, the one that had burned him. It wasn't there. She turned, and noticed that he was holding on, for dear life, to the string that was connected to the TARDIS key. The areas where the key approached his skin were steaming in the damp London air.

"Hang on," said Buffy, managing to yank the key out of the Doctor's hand. The hand dropped, limply, and Buffy heaved the Doctor over her shoulder as she ran towards the TARDIS.

As she approached the wooden box, she thought the Doctor would have an adverse reaction — that the TARDIS would burn him, just the same way the key did, but he didn't respond to the TARDIS at all. What had he said? Not to rely on the TARDIS for any favors, after he turned, because of some… symbiotic link? Maybe she didn't understand what the word symbiotic meant. She'd thought she had, but that would imply a lot of crazy things about the Doctor and his time machine that Buffy was pretty sure weren't true. She resolved to ask Willow about it, the next time she saw her. If there was still a universe left, at that point.

Buffy fitted the TARDIS key into the lock, and the door clicked open. The TARDIS looked just as bright and shiny and impressive as it had when Buffy had first entered it, but the room was not giving her a comforting, reassuring hum the way it had before. No, this hum was worried. It was like a frisson of fear crawling across Buffy's spine. And her Slayer senses weren't helping her, either.

Buffy heard the door click shut behind her, as she hauled the Doctor towards the mushroom-shaped thing at the center of the room. And there, right beside it, was something that Buffy didn't remember from the last time she'd stepped inside the ship. It was an array of test-tubes, all labeled with a skull and cross-bones. As she approached, she could read the label more clearly. It said:

Vamp-Away.

Warning: This Substance is Poisonous to Humans.

Buffy set the Doctor on the ground, beside them, placing one of the test tubes in his hand. But he didn't grab it. The test tube just fell from his hand and crashed onto the floor, splattering itself all across his skin. He was too far gone to do it himself. Too far gone to save him, maybe? No, Buffy couldn't think of that. She had to try. In one last, desperate bid to save the universe, Buffy snatched a vial of Vamp-Away, unstopped it, and poured the substance down the Doctor's throat.

He swallowed.


	27. Chapter 27

For a moment, it seemed as if nothing happened. The Doctor wasn't breathing, his final heart had stopped beating, and Buffy wondered if she'd been too late. If there was nothing more that she could do. If she really had just lost, and should start looking for steel rods or swords or a black hole just in case he woke up.

And then the Doctor gave a sudden gasp. His eyes were still shut tightly, but his forehead creased, and he reached out to Buffy. She took his hand, squeezed it, let him know that she was there.

He began coughing, turning onto his side, his cheek against the metal grating of the floor. Buffy could feel the single pulse beneath his wrist returning, growing stronger with surprising speed. Still only the one heart, but it was better than nothing. Remembering the incident in the car, Buffy smacked him on the back, around where his left heart was, and felt that one jerk into life. The Doctor coughed more violently, and Buffy could see that he was coughing up blood — but not his blood. No, this was the darker blood, the vampire blood. He was ejecting it from his body.

And as he coughed it up onto the metal grating, Buffy watched, amazed, as the blood seemed to shimmer, and then disappear, eaten away by the magical Vamp-Away substance. Buffy turned back to the Doctor, but he had slumped onto the floor of the TARDIS, breathing evenly, eyes closed. His face was returning to normal, and Buffy thought she could almost see the Vamp-Away sweeping across his body, fixing him, fighting off the vampirism bit by bit until he would be back to normal. The TARDIS hum was softer now, more gentle and soothing, and Buffy's Slayer senses were easing back into that familiar lingering sensation that told her the Doctor was around.

But was he still the Doctor? Or was he some evil version of the Doctor?

"Doctor?" Buffy asked.

He cracked his eyes open. "Buffy Anne Summers," he said, and the name sounded like music to Buffy's ears, like a song she had heard long ago but forgotten until that second. "Thank you."

He closed his eyes, and lay, limp, against the floor. Buffy just couldn't believe it. The Doctor was alive. He was fine. The world was safe. There hadn't been some big battle between her and Evil Toby Doctor. There was never going to be any ultimate battle between her and the Origin of All Evil. Everything was normal again.

Buffy found herself staring, idly, at the vials of Vamp-Away. She tried to distract herself, tried to make sure that the Doctor was still all right and that everything was safe and sound and the whole adventure was over, but her attention always wound up back on those vials. On the cure. The cure!

The cure for vampirism.

Buffy hadn't thought it was possible. Jack had said, sure, but… Giles had always told her that anything human had died long ago. That there was no way for them to get that back. She'd assumed that Jack had just been exaggerating. Blinded by devotion and, well, let's face it, love. But Buffy just kept thinking about what she'd seen. About the vampire blood, and how it was consumed by that Vamp-Away stuff. The way the Doctor had been before he'd taken it, and the way he looked now — healthy and alive.

Buffy hesitated. Jack still might have been exaggerating. She knew that. Test time, then. Buffy pressed the TARDIS key against the palm of the Doctor's hand, where the hideous burn-mark was now slowly fading from his flesh. The Doctor instinctively clutched at it, as if he were a newborn baby, clutching at a security blanket or stuffed animal. He pressed it in between his hearts, a peaceful, content grin washing across his face. The action made Buffy almost laugh.

She looked back at the Vamp-Away.

For several minutes, Buffy just kept staring at it, thinking through the possibilities. Imagine! With a cure for vampirism, with a way back, imagine what she could do! For all the vampires in Sunnydale, for all the undead people throughout the world. No, that was a lie. She wasn't thinking about the undead people throughout the world. She was only thinking about one of them.

And, with this. Just imagine! No more scares about whether or not he'd flip out on them again. No more curse. No more one-moment-of-pure-happiness nonsense. She could tell everyone that he'd come back, come back for real, and they'd probably be glad about it. She and him, they didn't have to hide anymore. Their romance wouldn't be wrong anymore, wouldn't be criticized. He wouldn't have to feel like he didn't deserve her, wouldn't have to think about the fact that he'd outlive her. With this cure, with this little vial… they could be together. Really together. The way that human couples were together. She could solve everything.

Buffy reached out a hand for one of the test tubes.

A cool hand caught hers. She looked over, and found herself staring straight into the Doctor's eyes. He was sitting up, back to normal, as if nothing had ever happened.

"It won't work," said the Doctor.

It was not a reprimand. He was not chiding her for her misdeed, not telling her to think about what she'd nearly done. It was simply a fact. The truth. And Buffy could tell.

She took back her hand. "I thought…"

"I know," said the Doctor, a little sadly, now, his voice laced with sympathy. "But alone, it'll just kill them outright. Vamp-away. Does what it says on the tin. The cure — for vampires created using human genetic material, at least — it's a bit… more complicated than that." He gave a wink, and tapped the skull and crossbones on the label.

"Oh," said Buffy.

He grinned at her. "Fun, though," he said. "I always make sure to drink some beforehand, if that little itch in my head is telling me there are vampires around. Time Lord blood's a bit… legendary. Apparently, most vampires on Earth believe that a taste of Time Lord blood is going to solve all their problems." His eyes twinkled, his grin spreading even wider. "So, I make sure it does."

At first, Buffy thought he was saying that he was tricking them into poisoning themselves. But suddenly, everything clicked into place inside her head.

"The cure's your blood?" asked Buffy.

"Well," said the Doctor. "It is when I add a little of this stuff into the mix. Alter my blood chemistry slightly, make sure the regenerative platelets are ready to do their thing. Combined with a triggered psionic pulse to refire the neural pathways in the anterior prefrontal cortex, the regenerative platelets act as an amplification field, unblocking the conscience entirely. Then they get to do their magic in the rest of the body. Killing off the vampire cells, replacing them with newly regenerated organic human tissue."

"So you've got mythical, magical blood that vampires have legends about," said Buffy. "And you've been using that to trick them into making themselves human again?"

"Oi! I give them a choice," protested the Doctor, a little defensively. "I always ask them if they think it's worth it. If it's worth the risk. You'd be surprised how many think it is. Your Master friend very nearly took me up on it, back in 1937."

Buffy burst out laughing. She could imagine the Master, that terrible, evil, hypnotic vampire, squaring off against the Doctor, who must have been absolutely relaxed, calm, carefree, daring him to do it, daring him to drink his blood.

"I can't imagine him as a human," said Buffy. "Can you imagine some guy, like you and me, walking around in broad daylight, calling himself the Master and hypnotizing people left and right?"

The Doctor's good cheer faded a hair. "Yeah," he muttered. "I could."

"You okay?" asked Buffy.

"Fine," said the Doctor. "Just fine." And the way he said it, it was pretty obvious he wasn't going to say anything more on the subject.

Buffy had no clue what had upset him, but — you know what? Screw it! She'd just saved the world, and the universe, and the Doctor! She figured she needed a vacation. Or a reward. Or just a lucky break. Buffy looked back at the Vamp-Away, longingly.

"It's composed of a number of elements the human race hasn't discovered yet," the Doctor said, softly. "If I let you have it, it could change the course of human history. For the worse. I'm sorry, Elizabeth."

Buffy hung her head. "I just wanted…"

"I know," said the Doctor. "You wanted to help Angel. That's what you've always wanted. You always saw the good in him, every time we ran into him. And probably a number of other times you never told me about. You did always like to pop off whenever we visited the United States in the 20th century."

Buffy blinked. "Wait, what?" She swallowed. "Doctor, how do you know Angel? No. Wait. How do _I_ know Angel?"

The Doctor didn't answer. He just got a far off look, a haunted look, one that was full of pain and memory. "I think it's better," said the Doctor, "if I don't say. New timeline. New start. Perhaps that's all anyone really needs. Perhaps there is a time for second chances."


	28. Epilogue

The Doctor stood, his long brown coat draped down across his thin frame, the nearby alley walls plunging him half in shadow. He had his hands in his trouser pockets, looking very relaxed, as he surveyed the area around him. It was Sunnydale, 1998. A dumpster sat perched to his right, and his TARDIS lay behind him, her bright blue exterior lending the alley a reassuring spark of life.

Buffy had just left. The Doctor had waited another minute or so since the echo of her footsteps had faded into silence. Just to make sure.

"I know you're there," he called. "You can come out, now."

The sound of shuffling feet reverberated through the alley, and Angel emerged from his hiding place in the shadows. He was trying to walk with a brave determination, as if nothing bothered him, but it was obvious that Angel was terrified of the man before him. He met the Doctor's gaze with his own.

"So, it really _is_ you," said the Doctor. He surveyed Angel, with a mild curiosity. "You do realize you shouldn't be here."

Angel nodded. "Are you going to kill me?"

The Doctor raised an eyebrow. "Do I need to?"

"I know how this works," said Angel. "If Elizabeth had never met you, if she'd never gone with you to Romania, she'd never have stopped you. You'd have killed me for what I did to your Kalderash friends. I've somehow wound up in a timeline where Buffy never met you. That means I should be dead."

"Oh, that," said the Doctor. He gave a shrug. "Bit of a temporal misalignment never hurt anyone. Not sure how you wound up in this timeline, but I suppose that's a mystery for another day. At any rate, that's not why I'm here. I've come to give you a choice." He took his hands out of his pockets, revealing a small glass container filled with a reddish-orangey substance that seemed to shimmer, even in the half-light of the alley. The Doctor held it out for Angel.

Angel took it, hesitantly, the liquid in the container sloshing across the sides, gold specks glittering inside its orangey depths.

"It'll make you human again," said the Doctor.

"I know what it does," said Angel. "I've heard the rumors. I was surprised you didn't use it back in Romania."

"Hadn't come up with it, then," said the Doctor. "Had to use Magda to channel the psionic energy. Same species and all. Didn't know she was going to stick in that extra bit about the moment of happiness. Neither did Elizabeth. Must have done that when I was already luring you away from the camp."

"I remember."

"But this'll be enough to counteract that. Let you lead a normal, happy life. A human life."

Angel gazed at the liquid in the container again. He said nothing for a few moments, the sounds of nearby traffic echoing through the still night air. "Why?" asked Angel, at last. "I don't deserve happiness. You made that perfectly clear to me."

"Maybe I was wrong," said the Doctor. "Maybe we all deserve a second chance."

Angel's head shot up, a dark anger radiating from his eyes. "So that's what this is about."

The Doctor faltered.

"This," said Angel, shaking the container at him. "This isn't about me getting another chance. This isn't about restoring my humanity. This is a bribe. I'm the only other person in the universe who remembers what you did to Elizabeth. You want to make sure I don't tell Buffy."

"It's… not about that," the Doctor said.

"Then why?" Angel demanded. "Elizabeth told me, Doctor. Back in 1905. She told me what you did."

"I… didn't…." The Doctor scratched the back of his neck. "I never meant to hurt her."

"But you did," said Angel.

The Doctor sighed. "How much do you know?"

"About 2003? Nothing," said Angel. "About you? A lot. She said she wished she'd never met you. And I believed her."

"Yes," said the Doctor. "She told me that, too."

"You had the most amazing girl in the entire world," said Angel. "And you ruined it. I don't know all the details, but I know that whatever happened in 2003 was just the end of a long, destructive relationship." Angel peered at the Doctor. "What did happen in 2003?"

"It was… not one of my finer moments," admitted the Doctor. And it was clear that this was all he was going to say about the matter.

Angel looked down at the liquid again. "If this isn't a bribe, then what is it?" he asked. "Because you're not doing this out of the goodness of your heart."

"Hearts," corrected the Doctor.

Angel ignored him. "You may be a forgiving person, but that's not going to change the fact that you believe I deserve to live like this."

"I'm… just doing a favor for a friend. As a thanks for helping me," said the Doctor.

"That would be Buffy, then?"

"Yes."

"Did you tell her?"

"About 2003?"

"About you two."

The Doctor ran a hand through his hair. "Not… exactly," said the Doctor.

"You lied to her."

"It's best she doesn't know."

"She'll find out," said Angel. "She isn't stupid."

"No, she's not," admitted the Doctor. He shifted from foot to foot. "I didn't tell her about Romania, either. I've been trying to keep most of what I know about you hidden. You've been given another chance, Angel. Another timeline, another Elizabeth. And she loves you, this time. You always wanted that."

"I wanted her to be happy," said Angel. "She can't be with me."

"But she can," said the Doctor. He nodded at the vial. "You can be human again. You can have your happily ever after."

"I just have to take your bribe," said Angel.

"It's not —"

"But it is," said Angel. "That's exactly what it is. If I don't take this, if I decide not to do it, what'll happen then? Will you pour it down my throat? Inject me? Or just get me out of the way, make sure I don't get the chance to tell Buffy anything?"

The Doctor sighed. "It's your choice," said the Doctor. "If you don't want to, you don't have to. I'm not going to make you."

Angel gave a hoarse laugh. "You never give vampires a choice."

"I always give them a choice," said the Doctor. "Every time I do it."

"You bait them," corrected Angel. "You challenge them. You dare them to do it."

"I ask them if they think it's worth it," replied the Doctor.

"You asked me that, once. Back in Romania."

"And was it?"

"Nothing's worth a drop of your blood," said Angel. "Not the pain, or the loneliness, or the isolation. Not the hunger, or the despair, or the guilt."

"Not even Elizabeth?"

Angel hesitated. He stared at the liquid, watching the way the nearby lamp-light reflected off its surface. "She's worth it," admitted Angel. "No matter what the timeline. She's always worth it."

"Yes. She is."

"But you still did what you did to her."

The Doctor said nothing.

Angel twirled the container between his fingers. "And here you are, again," he said. "Coming into Buffy's life. Just like you did last time. Repeating the mistakes of the past." He dropped the container on the ground, and smashed it with his foot. "I'm not repeating my mistakes," said Angel. "I know what happens when you show up. Nothing but tragedy and death and despair. You destroy everyone around you. You did it to Elizabeth. And now you'll do it to Buffy."

"I'm not trying to—"

Angel twisted his face into his vampire-snarl, hissing at the Doctor. "I think it's time you left, Doctor."

"Angel, I didn't—"

"Leave. Now."

The Doctor nodded, accepting Angel's wrath calmly, as one hearing an honest critique. "Take care of her, Angel."

Angel's face morphed back into his usual, human appearance. He glared at the Doctor as the alien walked away. There was something in the air, now that the Doctor had been there. Something dense and stifling, something that seemed to slither around Angel, with a malicious determination. Angel shook it off, putting the malicious whatever-it-was out of his mind.

The Doctor paused in the doorway of his TARDIS. "She still loves you, you know. She might not say it, but it's there. You'll never go back to being just friends. Not after what happened between you two."

"Neither will you," said Angel.

The Doctor sighed, then went back into his TARDIS. It made a wheezing, groaning sound, as it faded from sight. Angel hoped he would never see the Doctor again.

But he knew he would.

* * *

-The End-

(Look for sequel soon!)


End file.
